The Fall-Back Plan
by oncloudnineandthreequarters
Summary: When things go awry with a XANA attack, Ulrich and Aelita find themselves to be the only one's left to fight the virus. Deciding to recruit new members to the Lyoko team, what happens when Sissi, Hervé and Clone!William are the ideal choices? Mostly UxA later, slight UxS, Attempting to update once a week; so far so good. WARNING MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH IN BEGINNING
1. Prologue

A/N:

Hi, a new story here. Let it be known that this plot IS NOT MY IDEA. However, I have received permission to use the idea for my own creative purposes by randompandattack, so if you would like, check out their story, The B Team.

I already have several chapters typed up, and plan to update weekly.

Thanks and remember to review!

* * *

This wasn't supposed to happen.

This was definitely not supposed to happen.

Every single time they barely escaped a dire crisis.

But that was okay, because every single time they _escaped with their lives._

XANA took control of a police officer this time, and one with a loaded gun at that. We were all used to XANA and his weapons. Namely the electricity from our opponent's hands.

Yumi was the first casualty.

She had called Jeremy from the woods inside the school, where the possessed officer had shown up. The girl gave the genius a rundown of the situation before suddenly hanging up as XANA attacked her. The fight barely lasted one minute before she was shot in the knee with a bullet. Yumi's first thought was that a return trip would be necessary and to call Jeremy of the situation. Her next was to escape.

She didn't get the chance as officer pulled the trigger again, aiming at her chest.

Thankfully there were no on-lookers.

The next was Jeremy.

The rogue officer quickly made its way to the factory. As the elevator doors opened Jeremy peered over his monitor, praying it was Yumi. His eyes widened behind his thick glasses as he took in the sight of the officer with a gun clenched in his fist, and a maddened smirk on his face. The genius' mind whirled with possible outcomes to this situation. Odd, Ulrich and Aelita fought four krabs on Lyoko, and even if they were here the chances of at least one life being taken were still so remarkably high. He knew his friends needed him, but if he were to sacrifice himself, he could at least make it worth the while .

Jeremy began to type furiously, not letting his fear for the inevitable blind his concentration. He typed in programs for this specific scenario in record speed, and hoped that his friends could beat the krabs and get to the tower faster in a vain attempt to stop this.

The man casually walked over to the monitor, all the while bringing his gun up level. Just as the boy finished locking down the interface and scheduling a return to the past when the tower is deactivated, the possessed man stood just next to him, with his gun nearly grazing his shirt, just over his furiously beating heart.

Jeremy turned his head and gave him a defiant look.

The last tragedy was Odd.

Just as a gunshot rang out in the computer room, a scanner slid open to reveal Odd. He stumbled out of the scanner and onto the elevator, grumbling about 'that sneaky shellfish'. The elevator stop on the computer room floor, and his blood ran cold. A specter of a cop sat at the computer attempting to type on the keyboard but seemingly unable to for some reason. Jeremy lay at the man's feet facing away from Odd on his side, with a gruesome puddle of blood slowly seeping away from his body.

As Odd begun to realize the situation, the officer turned, frustrated with the locked computer, and caught sight of the boy in the elevator.

With a growl and inhuman speed he raised the gun once again and shot the boy in the neck from his seat.

Odd's back hit the elevator from the power of the shot and he grabbed at his throat. He didn't feel pain. But he was no longer in control. His body slid down the elevator wall and his vision was gone in three seconds. His heart beat in ten.

The final two Lyoko warriors were in the virtual world, Ulrich standing on guard on his overbike in front of the activated tower their princess had walked into. He called out, trying to get into contact with Jeremy, desperate to know how Yumi was doing.

Aelita put her dainty hand against the panel and watched as Code: Lyoko was entered after her name pulsated against the screen. The data on the walls fled downwards as the tower was reset.


	2. Cope

A/N: Forgot to mention, this story will be beginning after episode 81.

So this is the shortest chapter that I have typed up, and I've found that the more chapter I write, the longer they get. So far I have another 4 chapters written, so you can be sure to know I play to update AT LEAST four more times, though I plan to finish this story.

The first chapter I posted last thurs./fri. and I said every week, but I'm doing it now because I'm leaving for a week tomorrow, and I didn't want to make you guys wait. *Sadie voice* Your welcome.

Sorry this is my least favorite chapter I've written, because I'm good with angst in my head, but not putting it into words. It gets better after this I promise.

Remember to review otherwise I won't know what I'm doing right or wrong.

* * *

The return to the past brought Ulrich back to his bed from this morning. He was already wide awake from just a moment ago being in the virtual world. Odd's alarm clock was blaring the boy's favorite radio station. Ulrich lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, waiting for his best friend to turn off the alarm.

"Odd." Ulrich growled.

No answer.

"Odd, turn off your-"he started, turning to face his roommate. Only he wasn't there.

Perplexed, Ulrich got up and turned off the alarm, and started thinking about where Odd could be. The last time this happened Odd was sleeping right next to him and turned off the alarm seconds after it began.

His thoughts were cut short when there was a frantic knocking on the door. Without giving the okay, the door was pushed open to reveal a fluster Aelita, with bed head and rumpled pajamas. She let out a relieved sigh at seeing Ulrich.

"Jeremy isn't in his room," she began. "I was in Jeremy's room talking to him-or at least supposed to be- but I was midsentence and there wasn't anyone there!"

To steady her Ulrich gripped her upper arm and spoke softly. "Odd isn't here either. He's supposed to be, but he's not."

They shared a confused gaze, Aelita's more panicky.

"Wait," Ulrich said suddenly. "Remember that time we thought we went back to the past but we were trapped in that bubble thing?"

"The simulation bubble?"

"Yeah!" he said excitedly, turning and beginning to put on his usual clothes, not caring that the girl was witnessing.

The girl's cheeks flushed slightly and she adverted her gaze while saying, "But none of them were on Lyoko at the time. I'm about ninety-nine percent sure that's impossible to do."

"But you're saying there's a chance?"

She shrugged but was calming down because despite the unlikely idea, there had to be a reasonable explanation to this.

"Go get dressed and we'll go down to breakfast. If Yumi doesn't show up like she's supposed to, we'll assume she's with them. If they all show up together, cool, if they don't, we'll skip first period and head to Jeremy's room to look for the thing on his computer," Ulrich finished, pushing the princess out of the room.

She nodded and silently thanked him for his leadership. She always felt a little frazzled whenever Jeremy wasn't around.

* * *

Ulrich ignored his food and almost missed Aelita taking the spot next to him as he stared at the cafeteria doors that Yumi should have appeared out of three minutes ago.

"Yumi's not here," he growled, pushing his food away as he now felt the anxiety Aelita was feeling.

The princess nibbled on her toast, thinking of other possibilities as to where there friends are. It was physically impossible for them to just be playing a joke, and she sincerely doubted XANA had found a way to teleport them into the supercomputer. Plus XANA usually didn't try the same trick again if it didn't work the first time.

After Aelita finished a small portion of her breakfast and she had convinced Ulrich to do the same, they made their way up to Jeremy's room. She sat at his computer chair while Ulrich leaned over her shoulder as if to make sense of the codes splayed across it.

"What's going on? What's it say?" he demanded.

"Hang on, it's searching," she replied patiently.

The computer quickly linked to supercalculator and began to search every pixel of Lyoko for anything out of the ordinary. Since the last simulation bubbles, she worked on a program with Jeremy to detect irregularities like them, much like the super scan.

As the two Lyoko warriors anxiously watched the screen for nearly ten minutes, and big green plus sign showed up on the monitor, confusing Ulrich and depressing Aelita.

"They aren't on Lyoko," she whispered before he could ask. "None of them are."

As his only idea and hope disappeared, the reality sunk in. Their friends were missing.

Aelita only hesitated a moment before typing in something else, and a folder with video files popped up. She glued her eyes on the contents, determinedly searching them.

"Please Jeremy, please tell me you connected it to the supercomputer," she said to herself.

Ulrich, through his downcast mood, asked, "Connected what?"

She responded, "The supercomputer settings don't go back in time, so whatever happens on there, stays on there. Meaning if the security cameras for the factory are connected to the supercomputer-"

"We have the recording of what happened at the factory!" Ulrich continued.

Aelita nodded. "And it might give us a clue as to where they are."

As she finished speaking, her mouse hovered over the video they were looking for. Hastily, they opened it.

It began with Jeremy on the phone with Yumi. He sat on the computer, with the elevator door in the background.

"Yumi? Yumi!" he cried into his microphone. "Are you still there?!" He started mumbling incoherently to himself as he ended the dead call with Yumi.

There was obvious panic on his face as Jeremy desperately typed on the keyboard. For five minutes they watched the genius work, Ulrich searching for some clue as to what happened to Yumi, when it happened. The elevator began to whirl, making the familiar noises of it being in use. The doors slid open, and both Lyoko warriors expected to see their oriental friend.

To their utter dismay, it was the police officer they knew Yumi was fighting earlier. With the gun in his hand, they could only assume what happened. Ulrich didn't think he could watch anymore. There wasn't some graphic scene to depict it but his imagination was vivid enough to come up with a scenario. Nonetheless his eyes didn't stray from the screen, praying there was an explanation.

Jeremy only halted his work to look over his screen, before sighing and continuing.

"What are you doing?" Aelita muttered, eyes already becoming glossy.

The genius' typing became faster and they watched the predator walk right up to him. With the muzzle of the gun right in front of the heart of their beloved friend, Ulrich and Aelita felt like they were living in a nightmare.

"MOVE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Aelita's tears broke free and she predicted the outcome.

Jeremy turned and gave what looked like a smirk to the specter.

The gunshot rattled in the ears of the viewers. Aelita closed her eyes at the last second, while Ulrich watched in horror as Jeremy slumped against his chair, lifeless. His heart was skipping beats. Death was always around the corner but it had never happened. Until now.

Just as the officer pushed Jeremy's dead body off the seat, the elevator begun to whirl again. They knew who it would be this time. Aelita went back and forth between using her hands to cover her eyes, muffling a sob, or whispering, 'no', over and over.

The officer took control of the chair and attempted to type but the computer kept denying him access, most likely because of Jeremy. The elevator door opened to show Odd, as he took in the same scene the two remaining Lyoko warriors saw. The specter let out a frustrated growl then noticed their last friend. The speed of the movement was amazing.

The gunshot went off before either Aelita or Ulrich could think about looking away.

They saw the bullet go straight into his throat. He made a choking noise as his back hit the elevator, and he slide to the floor. Odd blindly griped his neck and made another gurgle noise before his eyes went out of focus and his body ceased movement moments later.

Their attention was miles away from the video now. The supercomputer screen showed the return to the past begin and the video went black.

Aelita was the first one to slump. She slid down in the chair and her head lolled back slightly from passing out. Ulrich noticed but he felt like he was outside of his body. He sat himself on Jeremy's bed, trying to think about helping Aelita, but his own vision blurred and Ulrich slumped onto the bed.

* * *

Ulrich heard voices. They were familiar, yet unrecognizable. He wanted them to stop, but at the same time the voices brought him comfort that he was still alive.

His sight was starting to return to him now, and he didn't like it. His head was propped up on a pillow as he lay in the nurse's office. The bed to his right held Aelita, who he first thought was asleep, but upon closer inspection, her eyes were wide open and staring at the white ceiling, tears endlessly streaming down her face. Her face was as pale as a sheet.

Ulrich tried to remember something-anything-that would explain this situation. When he focused, he realized he could make out what the voices outside the door were saying.

"Where did you find them?"

"They were in Belpois' room."

"What time was that?"

The second voice turned thoughtful. "About an hour ago I found them, so maybe four o'clock?"

"And Jeremy wasn't in there?"

"No. Just Stern and Stones. It's really kind of strange."

"Do you know why they are in this condition?" That voice was sounding more distress by the second.

"No idea that's how I found them. Yolanda says they passed out from shock. Apparently their vitals are good."

"Hmm… thank you Jim. Let's get this over with."

The doorknob twisted and the speakers were revealed to be Mr. Delmas and Jim. Yolanda came out of her office in the corner of the room at the sound of the door opening. The principal nodded to the nurse and looked toward the two patients.

Immediately they noticed the teens were awake, and rushed up to Ulrich and Aelita. Jim and Mr. Delmas went to Ulrich's side of the bed while Yolanda worried over Aelita's tears.

"Mr. Stern, tell us what happened and where Mr. Della Robbia, Mr. Belpois, and Ms. Ishiyama is," the principal demanded.

Hearing those names, Ulrich felt something snap inside himself. Yumi was gone. Odd was gone. Yumi was gone. Jeremy was gone. Yumi was gone.

"Lower your tone," the nurse scolded.

"We need answers Yolanda," he said sharply. "Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama have been calling all day."

He began to struggle. He needed to get away. Ulrich wanted to escape and hide and die. Over Mr. Delmas' yells and Jim's grunts to hold him down, Ulrich heard Aelita begin to sob his name. Her cries calmed him for a moment before his struggle became greater.

"Jim! Hold his legs!" called the principal. The gym teacher removed his hands from Ulrich's shoulders to comply just long enough for him to make an escape.

The warrior ripped himself away from the two men. He scrambled to the door, flung it open and booked it down the hallway. He wanted away from his princess' cries for him. He wanted away from the loud voices. He wanted away from what he believed wasn't real.

* * *

Ulrich's commotion startled Aelita out of her trance. Suddenly the video played again in her head. She tried to stop it, censor some parts, but for what she didn't physically see, her brain filled in with gruesome scenes.

She felt the gentle hands of the nurse attempt to counsel her. Strangely, she didn't accept the comfort. Aelita felt responsible. She was the one who deactivated the towers. She was the one who didn't get there fast enough. She was the one who killed her friends.

The tears wouldn't stop. The sobs were painful and her lip kept quivering.

Mr. Delmas heaved a sigh as Ulrich ran from the room. Neither of these teens was in fit condition to tell them the whereabouts of their friends, and the problem was that Mr. Delmas needed answers. The principal told Jim to turn in for the night, and if he saw Ulrich to send him his way, then sat in a waiting chair outside of the infirmary. Mr. Delmas listened to the girl inside's cries.

* * *

Ulrich found himself just barely inside the forest in the school yard. He leaned his back against the rough bark of the tree and slide down, trying to catch his breath. Desperate to keep his thoughts away from anything painful, he looked up at the sky.

How long were Aelita and himself out? It had to be at least six in the evening. The moon was peeking over the school as it rose, just staring at it made him feel a little calmer.

Then thoughts came from nowhere. Yumi, Odd, Jeremy. Over and over he saw their faces, their smiles, and felt rising guilt for every single time he let them down. Tiny moments that were mostly likely insignificant surfaced, one's that he had no idea how he remembered, sent to destroy him mentally.

Ulrich was wiping at his eyes before he knew he was crying. He growled at himself. He didn't deserve to cry. His friends would never get to cry again! Not to mention smile, laugh, or love.

The warrior swung his fist to propel his body to swing around and pound the tree he was once leaning on.

The pain felt good.

Ulrich planted his feet firmly into the ground and swung with his other fist, and was just as satisfied the second time. He switched back and forth between hands, making the tree shiver from the impacts. He didn't feel the pain, but the liquid that dripped off his knuckles was comforting. Once he brought his leg up to swing at the bark, but it wasn't the same feeling as being hands on was.

The teen didn't even hear anyone approach until they said something.

"Are you okay?"

Ulrich jumped got in a defensive stance, facing the voice. It was Sissi.

"What are you doing out here?" he snapped.

"Excuse me, but I can be wherever I want to be before bed," she retorted.

Sissi took in his appearance. Disheveled hair, rumpled clothes and completely bloodied knuckles. If she had seen him like this minus the blood, she would have said he had the rugged handsome look down pact, complete with a swoon. But her more dominate, kinder nature took over.

Sissi gaped at the blood and tried to get closer to Ulrich, but flinched when he made an almost inhuman sounding growl.

"Stay away from me," he snarled at the girl. Then he turned and left her with a pitiful look. She would have to have a word with her father, she thought as her long time crush stalked away from her.


	3. Daily Goings

Hey it may seem like it took longer to get out than the last, but to me these chapters are going out fast. I was camping last week so you got your chapter early, but I waited a little longer this week, since I decided I'll try and make the update day Thursday from now on.

Remember to review

* * *

Ulrich was surprised to find Aelita in the room he shared- used to share, with Odd. She lay on the bed that their absent friend once slept in, clutching some items to her chest. Upon further inspection, she was holding an old pair of Jeremy's glasses in her hand, Jeremy's pillow from his room was squished in her left arm, and lastly a sweatshirt Yumi forgot in Aelita's room several days ago under her right. Her exhausted eyes were puffy and red but she attempted to smother them into Odd's sheets that she was buried under. A little lump under the covers by her feet told Ulrich that Kiwi was trying to comfort the girl.

He only took a moment to give his princess a sad, knowing look before making his way to his desk to rummage around for bandages that were usually needed for his soccer playing.

Aelita watched her friend with interest, seeing the blood drip off his fingertips. She wanted to tend to the wounds, make sure her last friend wouldn't leave her if he spontaneously died from his injuries. Aelita's heart truly thumped to do it, but her body wouldn't respond. It wanted to lie, folded into the sheets of her funny friend, where her feet took her after Yolanda grudgingly let her leave.

The only thing her mouth managed to say was, "Delmas wants to speak with us tomorrow morning."

He let the hypnotic movement of wrapping his bandages take his mind. He had heard her, and his brain processed it, but was too drained to respond.

Ulrich turned, flicked the light off and got into bed, not minding the blood still on his palms, or that he was still fully clothed. Neither cared that they skipped lunch and dinner, the later still in session. Neither cared that she was obviously going to be sleeping in there.

"Aelita?"

The girl in question hummed in response.

Ulrich stuttered, "What h-happened. To them-their b-bodies?"

Aelita swallowed thickly, simultaneously trying to remember what the possibilities would be as well as not thinking of anything too painful.

"W-well, they could be exactly where they w-were when i-it happened," she said meekly. "The one that we know couldn't have happened is their b-bodies going back in time as well. Or the last chance is that their b-bodies were lost in the v-void of time… to put it simply they are n-nonexistent."

He didn't say anything, hearing the girl's voice begin to break by the end.

That night both warriors stared at the darkened ceiling for hours, not daring to speak any further in case the other had managed to catch a few blissful moments of rest. Ulrich pretended he didn't hear the princess' cries in the night. He already felt bad enough for himself.

* * *

"You can probably imagine why I've wanted to talk to you since yesterday," said the principal after ushering the two near-dead teens into his office early the next morning. He looked worn.

Mr. Delmas looked between the two before looking at the clock on the wall. Niether of the two said anything, or even gave an indication they heard the headmaster.

He cleared his thoat, and decided to start gently. "Yesterday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama called and asked if I had seen their daughter, who was not in her room, and had left all her belongings at home. Mr. Della Robbia and Mr. Belpois have also not been seen since last night, and all three have skipped their classes," he seemed to be getting more frustrated by the word. "Next, we find the two of you passed out in Mr. Belpois' room- I'm sure you can imagine our concern."

As they were given the run down of the situation, Ulrich and Aelita listened intently. Then they both realized- they hadn't come up with an excuse.

Aelita contemplated telling him everything- the supercomputer, the return to the past program, who she really was. Had things gotten to far? Saving the world and no one being able to remember it was one thing, but three people dying was a whole other matter. But Ulrich had other ideas.

"It was a dare," the boy said before Aelita could confess anything. She looked at her companion, confused.

Ulrich continued. "Odd wanted to sneak out to the woods last night. He called Yumi and she agreed apparently. It was whoever lasted the longest out there. He asked me but I refused."

He took a shakey breath and swallowed hard.

"Odd…- he left all his stuff. Said it would make the experience 'more realistic' to not have his…phone- or shoes. He said that he would try and get Jeremy and Aelita to do it with him." Ulrich's hands shook slightly. Lying had never been this hard before. He felt as if he would be physically ill in seconds. "I suppose Aelita decided not to go with them."

Mr. Delmas didn't look like he believed the boy. The older man eyed Ulrich over his glasses, his eyebrows creased in thought before he caught sight of the clock.

"So you're saying our own Jeremy Belpois and Yumi Ishiyama decided to see how long they could last in the woods?" The teens nodded in unison. "Mr. Della Robbia I believe would do that, but the unlikelyness of my star pupil and close runner up is staggering. Plus, I believe you two know more than Mr. Stern has shared, based on the condition you both have been in for the last day."

Ulrich scoffed, sudden anger. He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. Aelita wanted to hide away from the conflict.

"That's the only story you'll get out of us, so you'd better believe it."

A vein throbbed in Mr. Delmas' forehead as he attempted to ignore Ulrich's tone. "You children must understand. In minutes your friends will have been missing for 24 hours. By then they can and will be legally declared missing. Don't you want to lend a hand in hopes of finding your friends?" the headmaster reasoned, working the guilt angle.

Both Lyoko warrior's bodies tensed. That wasn't an option. They couldn't find their friends. It was either impossible or unexplainable.

Suddenly, Aelita begun to sob into her hands. Her cries turned into hyperventilating pants soon enough as both males were stunned at the turn of events. She threw her arms around Ulrich crying into his chest dramatically. He began rubbing her back, but was still somewhat confused.

"We- we just w-want our friends found!" the girl cried out and buried her face into her companion.

"Ah- my apologies Ms. Stones. I was too harsh," Mr. Delmas stuttered. "That is all I need I believe. You and Mr. Stern can leave now. I suggest you take Ms. Stones to the infirmary or her dorm to calm down. Thank you for all your help." The principal seemed uncomfortable and frazzled with the girl in his office and quickly shooed them out.

Ulrich held onto the weeping girl as they exited the main building, attempting to counsel her. As soon as they were out of earshot of any adults however, Aelita pulled out of his arms and sniffed her nose, erasing any evidence that she had been crying moments before.

"Wha- how?" Ulrich was amazed at the turn of events.

"It's acting. We needed to get out of there without any more questions asked," she replied as if it were the simplest thing to understand. "Now come on. Unfortunately, we need to check the woods before the police get there first."

* * *

The remaining Lyoko warrior's hearts throbbed in their chests as they searched through the forest for their oriental friend's body. If Ulrich thought he was going to be sick lying to the principal, he didn't know what he was talking about before, because now he literally felt the vomit trying to rise in his throat. What would they even do with her if they found her? Make it look like an accident? Move Jeremy and Odd's bodies nearby? Ulrich needed to stop thinking about this before he passed out for the second time in two days.

Aelita wasn't doing much better, but most of her hoped not to find Yumi, because then they wouldn't arrive at the factory and see…- the others. Both kept their ears open, listening for any footsteps or police sirens. For nearly fifteen minutes they looked everywhere in the woods before police alarms could be heard quickly approaching from the street. Delmas had called.

Ulrich and Aelita shared a panicked look. Thankfully the sewer passage was very close, and they took refuge, racing on their scooter and skateboard, respectfully, to the factory, to find the answer to their problem.

* * *

The elevator hummed with their hearts as it came to life; sliding open to reveal to Ulrich and Aelita that Odd wasn't on it. Aelita sank to her knees in relief and let out a sigh, splaying her fingers against the dirty factory floor. Ulrich did feel relieved in a sense, but it was short lived.

"In the video," he began, "Jeremy was typing something."

She looked up at him from her knees with a questioning gaze. "…Yes?"

"Did you know what he was typing?"

Aelita turned her head away from him, considering. He hesitated, wondering if he should take back the question. The yearning in his chest was begging him to find the girl he had a crush on for so long, just to make sure… it happened.

"I didn't recognize most of the programs he was using actually," Aelita's eyes were glazed over in thought.

"Doesn't it," Ulrich voice broke her out of her trance, "seem more likely- not that I put much thought into this- that there b-bodies would be… here still?"

She mulled it over for a second before Ulrich impatiently snapped, "Well?"

Aelita cringed at the harshness but silently forgave him. She knew how he got after a fight with Yumi. Losing her had to be hundreds of times more painful.

"Ulrich, I really don't know the chance of the possibilities, but if their bodies aren't here then-"she was cut off by Ulrich letting out a snarl and swinging, hitting the closest factory pillar with his still injured right hand. The boy was desperate to see Yumi again.

Aelita flinched again at her companion. She thought for a second that even though Ulrich's thoughts were a little misguided, he did have a good idea. The programs Jeremy typed had to have done something; otherwise he wouldn't have used his last moments alive to put them in.

"-but we can go look and see what he did," she finished as if she hadn't been interrupted.

Ulrich face was set into a frown, and he didn't meet her compassionate eyes, but nodded after a moment. They took the elevator down, uncomfortable with the small area after watching the video. When the doors opened to the computer room, Aelita hesitated. She imagined Jeremy sitting at the chair, typing away, hearing the elevator, and beaming over the monitor when he saw it was her. Then the image changed, Jeremy on the floor, at the feet of the cop, blood draining out of his lifeless body.

Ulrich grabbed her shoulder to regain her attention, and ignored her eyes becoming misty while steering her to the keyboard.

She shakily got into the seat, careful not to look at the floor beneath her. She attempted to bring up some programs, but a red exclamation point flashed, denying her access. Ulrich hovered over her shoulder in hopes of understanding what she was doing.

"Well? What's it doing?" he asked impatiently.

Aelita tried to think, ignoring Ulrich for the time being. Jeremy must have had some sort of plan, he must have known that they would need to access to the computer again. Aelita's mind whirled with thoughts, codes and conversations that might clue her in. Suddenly, a thought struck her. What if it wasn't as complex as she was thinking?

Despite not being on the proper page to run the program, she entered the code 'SCIPIO' into the interface. Immediately the red exclamation point disappeared and the computer returned to normal.

Ulrich and Aelita shared a wide smile, the later even laughing a little bit.

For nearly an hour Aelita rummage through the supercomputer. The data for the programs he used were guarded, and were going to take some work to get into. Shortly after she had found them and begun hacking them, Ulrich had wandered away from her shoulder. Aelita glanced up from her work after nearly four hours and rubbed her eyes from the glare of the screen.

She looked over- next to the elevator Ulrich sat, his mouth open slightly and head drooping as he was sleeping. Aelita smiled warmly at the other Lyoko Warrior, before returning back to work at decoding the names of the programs Jeremy had used.

* * *

After seeing Ulrich last night when she was heading to dinner, Sissi had heard the rumors. The girl had already noticed that Odd and Jeremy were missing, since they didn't come to class, and Yolanda had already confirmed for her that Aelita wasn't missing, plus seeing Ulrich assured her that Sissi needn't worry about him being gone. After an interrogation with William this morning, she had found out that Yumi was missing as well.

The rumors ranged from the group pissing off someone of power and being kidnapped, to Yumi not being able to decide who to date, Jeremy or Odd, and ended up running away with both. Sissi believed neither. She always saw them sneak off and disappear for hours, and this was not the first time, even for Jeremy, that the group had skipped a class. So something big was definitely up for all of them to miss two days' worth of classes, and only Ulrich and Aelita to be spotted in that time. Not to mention how screwed up both of them seemed to be, and the cops that were crawling around all day.

"Sissi! My dear!" Mr. Delmas exclaimed as his daughter roughly opened the door to his office.

"I need answers," the girl said bluntly. "Where are Odd, Yumi and Jeremy?" She closed the door in the secretaries', who tried to stop her from coming in, face

Her father nervously swallowed, setting down the papers he was furiously scribbling on moments ago. "Sissi, I don't think as a professional, I should share that information, even if you are my-"

"Three of my classmates are missing, rumors are going around like crazy, and you expect me to leave here without knowing the truth as to what happened to them?" Sissi interrupted harshly. Her father gave her a kinder look of pity, before nodding slightly. He always gave into his only child.

"Well," the principal cleared his throat. "I suppose a few details would be okay, just so that any rumors can go away, as to not upset Mr. Stern and Ms. Stones."

The girl crossed her arms expectantly.

"Yes, well, your classmates went into the woods last night- a dare that Mr. Della Robbia came up with- and they never returned. From what we know, there are no dangers about, so the chances of finding them unharmed are very likely, but the police told me this afternoon that the entirety of the woods on campus have been searched thoroughly but haven't found any of the children- let alone a clue as to their whereabouts." The stress on his face was easy to see.

Feeling content with the information she had got out of him, and maybe a little compassion, she hesitated a moment then mumbled, "Thank you."

Sissi walked to the cafeteria quickly. In truth she didn't care about the rumors or putting them to rest. All she wanted was fact. Now that she had it, it made the situation of three students in Kadic, the safest place she could think of, disappearing so much scarier. No traces. A not-quite-believable story. Beyond heartbroken friends.

The last thought struck her so hard she stopped walking just outside the cafeteria doors. Ulrich literally was killing his hands in despair. Yolanda said they were both in the nurses off from shock. Sissi was absolutely certain they knew something.

In line for dinner, she worked up the nerve to ask the lunch lady, "When is the last time Odd and his friends got something?" Hervé, who stood next to her in line, adjusted his glasses and gave her a confused look.

The adult was surprised. She thought back before confessing, "I haven't seen Odd in here since Monday! But his guy friend- oh what's his name, and the girl- the younger one. They came in here… what was it? Tuesday morning?" She mulled it over before nodding to go with her statement.

Sissi didn't even think about what she did next.

* * *

Ulrich and Aelita came back after dinner was already done, both downcast from not yet being able to hack the files. Aelita walked a little ahead of her friend, more in a rush to get to her Einstein's glasses. She came to a stop when something blocked her path to Ulrich's dorm room though.

The boy, not paying attention, ran into the girl. He let out an irritated huff and tried to go around her when he glanced over her head and first caught sight of the sticky notes that were all over his door, stating that police, the Ishiyamas, and the Belpois'(by phone) were looking to have a word with him. Then Ulrich looked down.

On the floor directly in front of the room were two trays, piled up with all sorts of foods that were served for dinner that night, complete with desserts. Both trays were wrapped up tightly and it was easy to tell they were still warm.

"Who…?" Ulrich started.

Aelita looked up and down the hallway, contemplating. She leaned down by the food to find a note that just had written on it in loopy writing, 'Remember to eat something'.

The princess smiled warmly at the kindness of the unknown person that was looking out for them.


	4. Comfort

We're gonna be getting to some Ulita in this chapter I believe. Can't really remember. If you are upset with the amount of words per chapter don't worry I'm learning that each chapter is becoming about 1k longer than the last. Chapter 6 is +7,000 words.

Remember to review I like those.

* * *

Ulrich saw Yumi. She was smiling at him. Odd stood next to her with a thumbs up and laughed at Ulrich. Jeremy stood on the other side of her gave a slight grin and pushed up his glasses. They all looked content, happy even.

"You're doing great, Ulrich," Yumi said.

Odd nodded. "Don't worry about us, we're doing awesome!"

Their words lifted him, he felt proud. Everywhere he looked was white, the color of good and innocent, while his friends were right in front of him, complimenting Ulrich. Their words were repetitive and sounded nothing like how they would talk, but it was nice.

"I'm here to help," Ulrich claimed.

Suddenly, Jeremy frowned. He looked behind Ulrich sadly. The picture was turning gray. Odd no longer held his shoulders high, and Yumi's beautiful smile vanished. Curiously, Ulrich turned to find the last member of their group.

Aelita was facing away from them all, curled into a ball. She was letting out loud sobs that Ulrich was surprised he didn't hear earlier. Every cry she gave out made things darker, until there was blackness surrounding all of them. Pressure on Ulrich's shoulder caused him to turn his head.

Yumi was there. She spoke softly, a whisper that Ulrich nearly couldn't make out, "She's the one that needs your help. There's nothing you can do for us."

Jeremy was over his other shoulder. "She's the one in danger. You're the one that can help."

Ulrich didn't want to nod. He wanted to argue and kick up a fuss that Odd, Yumi and Jeremy were the friends that needed the help. But his subconscious didn't agree.

He looked away from Yumi- no, I didn't want to do that. Ulrich stride towards the girl- no, wait, take me back to my other friends. The more he walked towards Aelita the further away she became- that's okay let's go back to our other friends in the white light.

No matter how much Ulrich fought with himself, his feet carried him to Aelita.

* * *

Ulrich didn't know how he had managed to sleep. Mostly likely from a stomach full of food Aelita forcibly made him eat, and the exhaustion of only having a small nap in the span of 48 hours. What Ulrich was sure of was what woke him up.

He sat up in bed and his gaze went to Aelita, who was curled into a ball, clutching the same objects as last night. Her eyes were wide open and puffy from what Ulrich could make out. Meaning while he was sleeping away she had been here crying. That would be the third time Ulrich did nothing while the only friend he had now broken down- she felt so upset that tears ran down her cheeks.

Both of them just stared at each other; the girl surprised to see him sit up so suddenly. Ulrich watched as her fingers still shake from the effort of holding in her sobs. He felt so ashamed. She was most likely holding in her cries as to not disturb him.

Before Aelita knew what was happening, the boy got up out of his own bed, and pushed her on the bed she was on until her back was against the wall.

"Wha-…!" she sputtered in surprise. Ulrich lifted Odd's sheets that she was under, and to her amazement, climbed into the bed with her. Her wide eyes never left his face, as if it would clue her into what he was doing.

Ulrich ignored her stare, grabbed the extra pillow by their feet and set it next to the one Aelita was using, laying down parallel to her. Then he pulled her close to his chest, mindful of the fact that she was still puzzled out her mind.

The princess' body was as stiff as a board from the turn of events, as she was now tucked into Ulrich's chest, in Odd's bed, at two in the morning.

Their breathing was the only thing that could be heard, besides Kiwi, that readjusted in the bed. Had it been daylight or the both of them wide awake, this could have even been awkward. Ulrich thought of his lingering dream, and clutched the girl closer, murmuring, "You can cry."

She processed it for a moment, before it all came crashing down on her. Jeremy, the person that turned on the supercomputer, freed her from it, found her father and past, and was the only person she even considered having a crush on was dead. Yumi, her only female friend in the world, the only one that was patient, and would listen to her silly problems when they should have been common knowledge at her age. Dead. Odd, the only one that could make her laugh when she was down from someone teasing her, who always made up lie after lie to ensure no one found out whom she truly was, he was dead. All dead.

She clutched Ulrich's sleep shirt in her fists, bringing herself as close as possible to his comforting embrace, and, making sure all of her precious possessions were still against her chest, let it all out.

* * *

Ulrich let the harsh school shower water rush onto his body while thinking of what happened earlier that morning.

To his surprise, he had woken up with Aelita curled in his arms, the both of them having fallen asleep in Odd's bed. As to not make it uncomfortable for her when she woke up, Ulrich immediately left for the showers.

He stood in the shower contemplating if he had actually fled for selfish reasons. Perhaps he was seeking to make up for not comforting her earlier in order not to have strange dreams like that. To a degree, Ulrich knew that he helped Aelita last night. But now he didn't know if he had done the right thing last night.

Not to mention the ache of loneliness in his chest when he realized he couldn't holler his question over to Odd.

Ulrich was lost in thought scrubbing his body, but was brought back to Earth by a loud clicking noise. There was only one thing that made that noise.

The teen whipped around to see Hiroki, Yumi's younger brother, fully clothed and holding a Polaroid camera up to his face.

"What are you doing?!" Ulrich demanded loudly. The younger boy just giggled, waved the camera in the air, and booked it out of the shower room. The teen grabbed his towel, tied it around his waist, triple checked it wouldn't fall off, and sprinted after the boy. Ulrich only hesitated to follow the kid when he saw him dash out of the boys bathroom altogether, but nonetheless followed.

"Hiroki you give that to me right this second!" Ulrich yelled, cheeks starting to blend red from embarrassment as a few on-lookers made strange faces.

"You have to catch me to get this picture!" taunted Hiroki. The Lyoko warrior wondered what had gotten into the boy that usually used respectful mannerisms around the teen.

Thankfully, when Hiroki got to the steps, he didn't start running through the girls corridor, and instead continued going down the stairs until he made it to the bottom floor.

Ulrich had finally caught up to the younger boy just outside of the dorm. He yanked Hiroki's arm, nearly causing the boy to drop the camera. Ulrich lived up to his surname and gave Hiroki a stern look, holding out his other palm for the camera.

"I'll only give this to you," Hiroki began, suddenly serious, "if you tell me where my sister is."

Ulrich's arm dropped. Hiroki immediately backed a few feet away, out of arms reached. The younger boy glared at the older one for an answer.

What was Ulrich supposed to tell him? 'Sorry your sisters actually dead and her body will never be found so don't keep your hopes up kid'? For nearly three minutes both boys stared at each other, neither saying anything to the other.

Hiroki gave Ulrich a disgusted look, as if he had seen him for what he truly was, before turning and running to no doubt Milly and Tamiya were. Ulrich let him go without a word. He needed to get some clothes on.

* * *

Aelita joined Ulrich at their table when there was just ten minutes of breakfast left. The teen was playing with the eggs that he grabbed but didn't bother to eat when she sat, glancing up slightly before his eyes drifted back to the eggs.

"Morning," she said lightly, though her voice was a little off from the intense crying late last night.

"Promise me you won't pick up a newspaper," was what he replied.

Aelita's response was cut off by the cafeteria door opening loudly, and two younger girls in eighth grade shouting, "Extra! Extra!" Ulrich's head made a loud thump as his head hit the table next to his tray in despair, complete with him putting his arms over his head, as if to shield himself. "See Ulrich Stern like never before! Keep this one under your pillow because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" exclaimed Milly.

The girls made their way to every table, asking mostly the girls if they would want a paper. Aelita raised her eyebrows at Ulrich's dramatic expression and what the girls were saying. When Milly and Tamiya had made it to Aelita, they gave the older girl a big smile. People that had papers in their hands were giggling and looking at Ulrich in a way Aelita didn't understand.

"Aelita! Here, have a paper, no charge," said Milly with a big smile and slightly red cheeks.

Even though the papers didn't cost anything anyway, the girl mumbled a 'thank you' and was just reaching for the one outstretched for her to take when Ulrich snapped up. He startled the younger girls, who didn't even realize he was sitting there.

Ulrich snatched the paper meant for Aelita, stuck it under his arm, and grabbed Aelita's wrist. He roughly pushed them outside, away from the commotion of people that were reacting to whatever was in the paper. As soon as they were by themselves outside of the cafeteria, he let go of her.

"Ulrich! Hey wait, it can't be that bad," Aelita reasoned, rubbing her wrist slightly from his strength.

Anxiously, he ran his fingers through his already spiked up hair. Ulrich had just opened his mouth to respond when there was a different voice.

"Excuse me," the teens turned to the newly approached men. "Would you two know where we could find the students Ulrich Stern and Aelita Stones?" Both Lyoko warriors lost their breath.

There were two men and they were obviously policemen, from their uniforms. But what really left them speechless was the fact that the second one, who hadn't spoken to them, was the one from the video. He calmly stood there, analyzing the teens behind his partner.

"That would be us," Ulrich gritted out with eerie calmness.

The officers exchanged glances. The one that both of them had their eyes on began speaking.

"We've been looking for you two," the officer said. Aelita and Ulrich both cringed at his voice, despite the friendliness. Aelita moved closer to the boy she was with, her heart beginning to pound. Subconsciously, she grabbed onto the back of his shirt lightly. "We couldn't find you two yesterday, but I guess we got lucky today, eh?" the officer finished with a laugh and scratched behind his head.

Ulrich and Aelita just continued to stare at the officer.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, well my name is Officer LaFevre, and my partner and I would like to ask the two of you a few questions about your missing friends."

* * *

Although the questions were simple and it got them out of classes for the day, Aelita had wished she hadn't of gone through it. She was in there for nearly two hours by herself. Both officers were kind and spoke nicely, but just being near the one that shot Jeremy and her friends, Officer LaFevre, fried her brain. Aelita's hands wouldn't stop shaking the entirety of the session, and she would only respond to the other's questions. If she tried to talk to the other one, it would come out as a choke, before she finally decided to avoid his presence altogether.

They had let Ulrich and her go to lunch together, where Ulrich had come up with an idea to sneak past the police and head to the factory for the rest of the day to calm down in Aelita's case, and avoid it all for Ulrich. But before either of them could think about eating a little more than they had the past few days, the men had come to collect them, probably guessing their course of action to ditch.

Now Aelita sat by herself in the forgotten computer room in the back of the Math building. They told her to stay there until they were done with her friend; much like Ulrich had to do when she was in there.

She wanted there to be someone there. She wanted Ulrich there. The last thing she wanted to do was be by herself. The questions were haunting her. A few of them were repeated, and they just so happened to be the scariest.

'_Do you know where your friends are?' 'No.'_ Yes.

'_Do you know what might have happened to them?' 'No.'_ Yes.

'_Is there anyone you suspect of hurting or taking them?' 'No.'_ Yes.

'_What was the last thing you remember them saying to you?' 'I don't know'_

That last one was the truth though. She hadn't talked to Yumi for a number of days beforehand because of how busy they were individually. Odd hadn't said anything directly for her to hear recently that she could remember- most of his time put into talking was dedicated to speaking to the group as a whole and trying to get them to laugh. The last time she had personally talked to Jeremy was the night before the attack and they were working on a program.

Seeing the computers surrounding her in this room, and still fresh from being asked all those questions was causing her mind to go through an inner turmoil. One second she saw all the computers, the next, Jeremy grabbing her hand with a smile. Computers, Yumi hugging Aelita. Computers, seeing Jeremy for the first time. Computers, computers, Odd defending her from bullies. Computers, Jeremy. Computers, Computers. Yumi, Odd. Computers.

"Agh!" Aelita grabbed her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, backing away in the corner, attempting to get away from the computers. Tears slid down her cheeks. How long had she been in this room? Why was she over reacting like this? Was she having a panic attack? These visions were worse than when she was remembering the men in black after being materialized by Jeremy.

"Hey- Are you okay-? Wha-!" The suddenness of someone else walking into the room and seeing her spooked her out of the state she was in just enough to look up from the corner.

The person was no longer in sight, having tripped and fallen on the floor, with the computer desks blocking her view.

"Ah… ouch. No blood? Lucky!" the slightly nasally voice said from the other side of the room. The person popped his head up, to reveal that it was Hervé making a scene.

The girl stared right at him as he dusted himself off, and stumbled to her, going around the desks and computers. It was as if she was watching everything fast forward. In seconds he was next to her, with a hand on her knee.

Hervé leaned down by her with concerned eyes, asking, "Are you hurt? Should I get Yolanda?"

Immediately, Aelita's head shook sharply, and she squeaked a 'no'.

Right then, Ulrich moodily walked into the room. "Aelita?" he called. Then he saw her clutching herself on the floor, tears still moist on her cheeks, and Hervé standing way to close to his last friend.

The brain, realizing the predicament, nervously put his hands up in a sort of terrified surrender as Ulrich angrily stalked up to him.

"It's n-not!- I found h-her like- please don't hurt me, Stern!" the boy whimpered.

Just as Ulrich got a tight hold on the front of the smarter teens flannel, Aelita called out, "Stop, Ulrich! He was just concerned."

Her companion nonetheless stared the other teen down, the hold on Herb's front tightening for a moment before he released him altogether from his grasp. Herb made a grunt as he was roughly dropped onto the floor and he rubbed his neck from the thought of almost dying.

Ulrich quickly huddled to Aelita, softly wiping the tears away from the pinkette's face.

"Are you okay? How long have you been like this?"

Aelita held onto Ulrich's forearms for comfort, like she was anchoring herself to the real world instead of her unwanted memories. She nodded to his first question and answered, "I-I don't know. It felt like a long time, though."

Ulrich considered that before hugging her to his chest and mumbling soothing words while she rubbed her eyes in an attempt to get rid of the thoughts and tears.

Hervé looked at the two and couldn't decide if they looked like an awfully close pair of siblings, the best of friends, or lovers. Instead of making himself uncomfortable by trying to figure it out, he did his best to slip away from the duo without being seen, in fear of Ulrich wrath.

Aelita caught sight of Hervé as he opened the door, and she quickly stammered, "T-Thank you, Herb."

The teen didn't respond, but ducked his head and closed the door behind himself. And he was hoping for a peaceful time on the computer.

* * *

They lay in their separate beds that night, Ulrich in his own and Aelita in Odd's once again. It was just eight at night, and they could hear the sound of classmates walking and conversing out in the hallway. The light in the room was still on, they were in their sleeping clothes, and neither of the teens was under the covers yet, but they weren't talking either. It was somewhat of a comfortable silence.

Ulrich thought about his questioning. It was uncomfortable to say the least, especially because of a certain officer. He quickly lost his temper with the police and stopped talking to both when they would ask the same questions over and over again. Ulrich could tell by the agitated looks on their faces that they weren't of any help to the search.

Aelita, meanwhile, studied the room with Kiwi happily being pet beside her. She really did not want to be sucked back into any thoughts that would make her upset. All the times she'd been in here, she had never noticed the two boys taste. Odd's side of the room had a lot of purple, dog toys, and clothes on the floor. Ulrich's side was made up of fighting posters, and plain colors like tan. His side was also much cleaner. Something caught her eye that was underneath Ulrich's bed though, that stuck out and ruined the completely clean image.

Curiously, Aelita stood up and grabbed the item, to find that it was the newspaper from earlier. The girl's eyebrows rose in surprise. She had assumed he had thrown this away earlier, after stuffing it in his bag while they were walked to the Math building by the officers.

Ulrich noticed in his peripheral vision Aelita get up and sit on the floor next to his bed, grabbing something underneath it. To his horror, what she had grabbed was the newspaper he had stuffed under there while Aelita had went to her room to change.

The pinkette unfolded it to show the cover, which had on it an almost full picture of Ulrich's naked back as he showered. Thankfully there was a half wall which covered anything below his hips, that would make this already mildly inappropriate photo completely out of the question to post in a school's paper.

Ulrich covered his eyes with his arm and groaned while still lying on his bed, not bothering to attempt to stop her since she already saw it.

Aelita's cheeks flamed red at the picture, and she could see why there were a lot of reactions in the cafeteria. His back was awfully toned, and his head was dipped back, with his hair slicked back and eyes closed in thought. Not to mention the water dripping- Aelita quickly flipped the picture over, getting embarrassed for looking at it for so long.

"Sorry," Aelita mumbled to Ulrich.

He peeked out from under his arm, and begun to laugh. The look on her face was priceless, and there was something about everybody in the room being embarrassed at the same time that was humorous. Aelita looked up at him through her pink eyelashes and cracked a smile, still not able to get the picture out of her head.

They only stop laughing together when Aelita looked down and went silent. Ulrich curiously looked at the paper with her. The article on the back was titled, 'School Genius, Japanese Day Student, and Class Clown Missing?' in bold letters.

"Read it," Ulrich requested, his once playful expression turning stony.

She cleared her throat thickly.

_"Tenth graders Jeremy Belpois, Odd Della Robbia and eleventh grader Yumi Ishiyama have been said to have gone missing about three days ago. Our sources say that there was no suspicious activity beforehand, and all three have disappeared without a trace. Rumors say that Ishiyama, Belpois, and Della Robbia have been kidnapped, but there is a lot of controversy over this. Our reporters have been making attempts to contact and get information from Ulrich Stern and Aelita Stones, but nothing has come of it yet. Keep looking for more updates on the situation."_

Aelita was thrown off by the 'attempts to contact' part. Ulrich was already speaking before she could comment, though.

"Hiroki," the boy said, turning over so Aelita was facing his back, "he tried to blackmail me. That's why the picture was in the paper. He wanted to know where Yumi was."

Aelita hesitated for a moment, the once light atmosphere now nonexistent. She stood next to his bed, and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. "I have a feeling things are going to get better, Ulrich." The boy didn't move, and didn't shake her off so she took it as a good sign. "Things are… difficult right now. Just… remember that I'm here, okay? Things will get better," she repeated. "Tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll go to the factory and try and figure out the programs, okay?"

Ulrich finally turned his head and looking her in the eyes, nodded with a small smile.

* * *

Sissi threw the rest of the paper away after clipping two things out of it. In her hand, she tightly grasped the picture of Ulrich, which she only had the chance to glance at before narrowing her eyes and angrily looking away. How dare those little girls expose to all of the female population what her love looked like in the shower? Sissi felt the overwhelming anger of not being the first and only to see him like that.

But more importantly, what actually did happen to her three classmates? She didn't believe for a second the story the two remaining members of that clan told her father. But how was she supposed to get the information?

Sissi didn't know why this was bothering her more. Instead of grossly examining the near-nude picture of her crush, her she was, studying the caption of missing students she didn't even think she liked at all in the other article she cut out. The curiosity to know was there, probably just like everybody in school, but it felt like something more was there than just that. And Sissi couldn't place the feeling she had when she stared this clipping down.

What she did know is that she wanted to get to the bottom of it, whether it is for her sake, or Ulrich and Aelita's.


	5. Attack

Sorry this one is late guys. And it will be the only chapter until next week so I'm saying I'm not going to make up for it. I was busy all last week with my birthday and driving around to different states for stuff. Anyway, if you've read my other stories you'll notice I have trouble finishing a story. I really do plan on finishing this one though so don't worry for now. Currently, I have one more chapter completely typed up after this (that one was a bitch) and I'm working on the next, just a lot more slowly then I've worked on the one's already up. But I'm still going!

As I said prior, the chapters are getting longer. I really wanted to work the angst angle, but the plot must go on. And so does my otp.

* * *

Aelita was plagued with a nightmare. She was currently in the memory of the video, as if she was standing the corner of the computer room of the factory, as the officer repeatedly shot Jeremy in the chest. Every time Aelita thought Jeremy had taken the shot that would kill him, he managed to give the attacker a defiant look, exactly like in the video, and continue on typing codes she had never seen. Every time Aelita thought she could save him before another bullet was sunk into him. Every time her body refused to move from its spot, and she was forced to watch the scene again, over and over.

Just as she was beginning to grow desensitize, or was is numb, from watching the scene repetitively, Jeremy turned and seemed to notice her. He said something.

It was muddled, and she didn't actually hear the boy say anything at all, but she felt she knew was she was saying.

Jeremy said it with such a kind look, there wasn't any sweat or grimaces like his face was in the first part of the dream. At this moment it felt like just the two of them. He kept saying the thing over and over, as if to comfort her.

Then the scene she hadn't even realized changed beforehand was back to the original. The gunshot that sounded strangely like a loud beep rattled her skull as she gasped awake from the suddenness. Aelita was drenched in her sweat, and she felt too hot.

"If you are going through hell, keep going," Aelita panted. That's what Jeremy was saying. It came naturally to her lips, and she knew for a fact that was what he was telling her. The words felt like they impacted her heavily at first, but the dream was fading quickly. When had he said that before? Aelita knew that Jeremy said the same thing not long ago. It was familiar.

Waiting for her racing heart to calm so she could think clearly, she took in her surroundings. It was nearly four in the morning.

She also noticed there was a reason as to why she was so warm. Ulrich was once again taking up half of Odd's bed. Aelita studied his face that was drastically close to hers from Ulrich holding her to his chest.

"So the night before wasn't a dream," she whispered. "Ulrich must have snuck over here again." The sense of déjà vu was undeniable.

There was a beeping sound again, eerily familiar to the one in her nightmare, causing her heart to stop for a second in surprise. Ulrich twitched at the noise.

Aelita attempted to untangle herself from Ulrich strong arms, wiggling this way and that, but the movement just made him hold on tighter and grumble. The girl pouted in thought. Then she had an idea.

Tilting her head to press her lips on his open hand that lay under her head, noting that the wound on his knuckles has healthily scabbed over, she gave the palm a big, wet lick. Ulrich's eyes snapped open and he flailed in surprise, withdrawing his hand, getting tangled in the sheets and falling off the bed.

Aelita would've taken a moment to laugh at the scene had it happened several days ago, but instead she took the opprotunity to jump off the bed as well, and open Kiwi's dresser door. The girl had heard the insistent beeping coming from here, and as the object was revealed to be Jeremy's laptop, the memory of snagging the computer along with his glasses while she was in the midst of her first breakdown surfaced. What she didn't know is why the heck it was in Kiwi's drawer. Did she really put it in there?

Ignoring her previous decisions and Ulrich cursing at her while wiping his hand on his boxers, she quickly opened the laptop.

Her stomach dropped to her feet.

An activated tower.

Ulrich saw the screen as well from his spot on the floor. The two stared first at the flashing tower, then at each other.

"What are we supposed to do?" Ulrich croaked.

Aelita's mind raced with thoughts and possibilities, but she knew that there was only one option.

"We fight."

The two quickly decided their course of action. Both would run to the factory, but if a foe was to be found, Ulrich would stay and fight it. Aelita fought against the last part of the plan but Ulrich harshly responded, "I'm the one that needs to survive less, and has a higher chance of winning a fight out of both of us." So the girl, despite an ache she felt at the fact she may lose her last true friend today, didn't make another comment.

Quickly dressing, they tip-toed their way out of the dorm room and down the corridor.

As they reached the stairs, they stumbled across William. Of course it wasn't the real one, since he was XANA's prisoner at the moment. William's clone, programmed by Jeremy, was in the stairwell, just standing there staring out the window, presumably at the near sunrise setting. The two attempted to make no noise while rushing down the steps past him, but the clone still noticed with his inhuman senses, and turned to them with the dull, blank eyes of a programmed being. Aelita and Ulrich froze.

"Are you two leaving to go to the factory?" he questioned in his light tone.

It didn't surprise either that he would assume that, having known everything and told very clearly not to discuss it openly. What they were still surprised over was his presence and bluntness of the question. Then Ulrich had an idea.

"Yeah, wanna come with?" said the teen.

The William clone looked pleased. "Yes, that sounds well." His way of speaking was very uptight, and slang wouldn't register into his head very well at all, but it made communicating with him easier in a sense.

"Ulrich, what are you doing?" Aelita breathed close to his ear, grabbing onto the back of his shirt nervously.

"Trust me."

* * *

The three were currently running across the bridge, with the factory blocking out the moon they were so close to it. Ulrich and Aelita were relieved they hadn't run into a specter or anything on the way there, Aelita more so than Ulrich. But as the slid down the ropes leading to the elevator, something caught William's hypersensitive eye.

The clone did curiously look, but only saw someone that appeared to be a factory worker hidden in the shadows behind some crate. Weird symbols were flashing in the beings eyes. He stupidly didn't say anything to the other two and boarded the elevator.

"Listen, Aelita," Ulrich started quickly. The girl looked at her companion as the elevator began sliding down. "I think you should turn that upgrade Jeremy made for William's clone a while ago back on."

Aelita, surprised at the request, immediately knew what he was thinking. "Ulrich we can't have him be fighting for us. You saw how easily he was neutralized when there was no one at the mainframe. He could just as easily be turned against us, now… now that no one will be protecting the computer."

William listened to the two, but didn't fully understand what they were saying. Because he wasn't being directly talked to, he instead stared blankly at the elevator door, waiting for it to open.

"And you think it's better to take the risk of one of us dying, or even worse, being captured by XANA then to just get a little bit of help this time?" Ulrich snapped at the girl glaring defiantly at him. "In case you have forgotten, we're down three people."

Aelita flinched back at his words, and Ulrich felt a pang of guilt, but he knew what he was doing would be better off for the both of them.

He tried a gentler tone. "Aelita, please, upgrade him just in case. You know how he fought to protect Jeremy before. We haven't even seen a specter so chances are we won't need-"

Ulrich was suddenly cut off as just when the elevator stopped on their floor, a loud bang shook the top of the lift, causing all three to stumble. Aelita silently agreed now, the clone could be of use- just this time.

The thing ripped the escape exit at the top of the lift from its hinges, revealing a factory worker with the eyes of XANA.

William looked up dully at the worker, and said politely, "I don't believe that's how you open that door."

Aelita bolted for the keyboard as the door slid open. Ulrich growled up at the specter, preparing for a fight. He got into the familiar martial arts stance while the specter jumped down the hole, ignoring the neutral clone.

Ulrich swung his leg up, hoping for a good shot right from the start, but to no avail. The man grabbed his leg with one hand, practically crushing the bone in his grip. Then he swung Ulrich right out of the elevator and into the back of Aelita's chair.

Despite wanting to help her friend, she instead continued working on searching for the upgrade that Jeremy had for the William clone. She pushed passed the programs that she had been looking through the last time she had been here a few days prior, reminding herself she really needed to look at those, and quickly found the upgrade.

It begun to download and she smiled slightly at the simplicity of finding it. Aelita turned to check on Ulrich when she received a blow to the face. She was knocked off the chair, right where Jeremy had been pushed several days prior. Clutching and groaning at the pain, she tried to scramble away from the spot with bad memories, or she just might get sick.

Luckily, she was able to pull herself away from under the chair, because Ulrich had recovered enough to let out an animalistic snarl and launch himself at the specter. Aelita knew that her cheek was going to swell, but she was relieved that the blow didn't knock her out like what XANA usually aimed to do lately. Glancing up at the screen, she saw a green plus sign flash.

Ulrich meanwhile was thrown this time into the wall. He rubbed his head, only to find his fingers were sticky. Bringing his hand down to look at it, there was blood on his fingertips. The worker, knowing that it wouldn't take much longer to finish the job, smirked and approached the teen on the floor.

"Hey!" William suddenly called from the elevator, his eyes looking more alive than ever, "Leave him alone!"

The clone charged at lightning speeds, taking down the specter in a half a second. Both crackled with pixels as they exerted themselves. Ulrich took the time given to push open the ladder door, slipping down when he saw Aelita quickly put in a delayed virtualization and follow.

"Keep him busy, William," Aelita called as she slid the door closed over her head.

* * *

Ulrich and Aelita dropped to the ground in the desert sector on Lyoko, preparing their respective weapons for a fight. The red glowing tower was actually very near, but to their surprise there were no monsters in sight.

Aelita shook the mystic pink energy from her palms, and frowned in confusion. Ulrich slid his katana back into its holder.

"I don't get it. You'd think XANA would want to protect its tower," Ulrich mumbled.

"XANA's plans may have changed since we've become a lot less of a problem just recently," Aelita responded grimly.

The girl quickly ran for the tower, just when four kankrelats came scuttling down the horizon. Aelita was too close to the tower for them to stop, but that wouldn't hinder them from attempting to bring the samurai back to the real world for his punishment.

Easily defeating the monsters, Ulrich turned to see that Aelita had turned the tower from red to white once again, and he breathed a sigh of relief at being able to neutralize XANA with just the two of them. He had his doubts for sure, since before on average it would take Jeremy, and another Lyoko warrior at the least. He remembered the clone that had helped them greatly, but quickly dismissed the thought of actually consciously deciding to fight for them was impossible.

Aelita jogged back from the tower to meet with Ulrich, and they both decided that unfortunately the only way to return back from the supercomputer was to devirtualize each other manually. On the count of three, the boy slashed his saber at his friend, while the girl through a pink orb at him.

Both stumbled out of the scanners a second later to find the William clone giving them both a big, life-like smile. Ulrich quickly analyzed the room, to see there was no damage, so that would mean that the only reason for the clone to come down here was to greet them. Aelita and Ulrich exchanged surprised glances at William's antics.

Pushing the thoughts away, the three took the elevator back up to the computer, Ulrich clutching his head at the throbbing and thankfully light blood flow.

"Here," Aelita indicated, patting the computer chair, before going to one of the panels in the wall. The boy sat at the chair, wary of why he was told to. The panel the girl opened showed numerous supplies, but she only pulled out a first aid kit.

Aelita returned hurriedly to his side to begin patching up Ulrich's head wound. William, sensing he wasn't needed at the moment, went into a kind of trance, reaching out his impressive abilities to sense any other trouble for his friends. All was silent.

* * *

Aelita typed away at the keyboard, bringing up programs and making sure XANA didn't do any damage anywhere else. As it turned out, the factory worker didn't do any harm to anything, and seemed to be just after the teens. Another good thing is that it was just a specter and not a possessed human. There were dents around the room from the two super powered beings throwing each other into them. Thankfully, a return trip wasn't needed, since nothing of importance was damaged, Aelita had decided that Ulrich probably didn't have a concussion, and his wound would be relatively easy to hide once the bandage wrapped around his head was off. She had, however, told him to walk around in a circle around the room to keep himself awake in case there was damage she wasn't seeing or he wasn't telling her.

Aelita felt the throbbing of a forming bruise on her cheek, but decided to ignore it because there wasn't anything to do to help it at the moment.

For a while, Ulrich walked around the girl that was typing hypnotically on the supercomputer. He occasionally glancing at the clone that had his eyes closed, leaning against the wall with arms crossed. Looking like that, he could actually pass for the real William.

The boy contemplated for a little while, one time opening his mouth to speak, before closing it again. Ulrich didn't know how to start. There were several things on his mind.

"You want to say something?" Aelita assumed without looking away from her work.

"How'd you know?"

"Your footsteps are even until you start thinking too much, and thinking too much causes humans to speak."

Ulrich frowned a little at the sheer ability of her observations. Overlooking it, he hesitantly asked, "Why were we able to keep XANA under control so easily?"

Aelita frowned and sighed, leaning back in the chair to rub her eyes. She looked remarkably like Jeremy doing that. "I don't really know why, but there are few factors that could've helped."

"Like…?" Ulrich prompted, wanting to hear the girl's opinion.

"Well," she began, "XANA could've underestimated us, but I doubt that, since it's an artificial intelligence on a supercomputer and is usually good at predicting our abilities."

"So it thought that it could… finish the job with just that specter?"

"Maybe," Aelita said hesitantly, returning to typing but focusing more on the conversation.

"What else?" the boy questioned, coming to a stop next to the computer chair, draping an arm over the back.

The princess thoughtfully scratched her cheek, before flinching at the sting from the hit she received earlier and returning her hand to the keyboard. Ulrich noticed her reaction, saw the redness and slight swelling, but didn't comment.

"This kind of builds on the idea of XANA being unprepared, but it may not of been expecting William."

Ulrich believed that was definitely possible. "But what about on Lyoko? There were hardly any monsters."

"XANA most likely didn't think that we would even make it to Lyoko."

"So that would mean XANA's plan-"Ulrich cut off. The two stared at each other as they figured out the virus's new plan.

"-is to eliminate us." Aelita finished for him.

* * *

As Aelita and Ulrich took seats in the back of the classroom, Mrs. Hertz gave them a nasty look for nearly being late. Not to mention they had missed three days' worth of classes. Ulrich was already her worse student, and she didn't need him to miss one more second of class.

The both of them had noticed the time not long after their discovery, and Aelita, Ulrich and William had to run in order to make it to their first class of the day. Forget about making it for breakfast. The clone automatically went to its class, but Ulrich and Aelita quickly stopped by the public, co-ed bathroom to check the boy's bandages and remove them, getting rid of the evidence.

Ulrich had stared out the window the entire class period, his hand holding up his head and a faraway look on his face that was per the norm in science- or any subject except German for that matter. Aelita had out all of her stuff and was diligently taking notes to take her mind off of the things that were happening recently.

Girls, and even a few guys, were constantly looked back at the two. Sometimes they would be confused looks, probably wondering where the rest of their group was since a lot of the time Milly and Tamiya came up with obnoxious rumors to get buzz. But most of the glances were flirtatious looks from the females, in Ulrich's direction.

The boy grimaced and his cheeks burned bright red because he knew why they were looking at him. Ulrich really didn't need all this attention. He supposed it was better than the occasional pitiful looks because of their missing friends.

Glancing at the girl next to him when there was just five minutes of class left, his thoughts turned darker. How was he supposed to keep the princess safe when the two of them were pretty much waiting in death row now? He had thrown himself in front of attacks on Lyoko, even got devirtualized for her. When the time came, would he do the same in the real world? Would he take a bullet for her?

The raw 'yes' that came into his head was so powerful he blinked and shook his head a little. Ulrich knew that he would die a painful death if it meant that Aelita could continue to live. He would've also done the same for Yumi, Jeremy, and Odd, but the sheer force his mind came up with an answer was boggling. Was it guilt? Ulrich couldn't protect Jeremy and his other friends, so perhaps the teen was trying to subconsciously over compensate by vowing to risk so much for the girl?

The boy's eyes traced Aelita's face from the side- her pink, plump lips, her button nose, her big eyes that were so focused on her work, her angular jaw that held her blackening, bruised cheek- Ulrich's eyes narrowed.

Just then, the bell rang. Ulrich looked away from the girls face. Aelita began quickly gathering her belongings, trying to think of a way to convince Ulrich to allow her to head back to the factory so that she could start looking at those programs again. She moved a lot slower than Jeremy, especially without his help.

The boy had other ideas, though, and quickly reached and grabbed Aelita's wrist tightly. The girl looked up at Ulrich's eyes in surprise, but didn't try to get her wrist free. Instead, as he began to lead her out of the room, she followed willingly, the both of them ignoring the girls that made attempts to come up and flirt with him.

Aelita saw a few curled lips and glares sent her way as they went past the doorway.

"Ah…Ulrich? Where are we going?" she asked timidly, stumbling a little to keep up with his pace. Ulrich glanced back and slowed a little, but otherwise didn't respond. Aelita notice that the two of them were walking towards the dorms, only they were taking a back way there.

Ulrich avidly tried to avoid people walking through the hall, instead going around the long way back to the boys' dorms that were empty. He only let go of the girl to reach into his pocket and unlock the door, before pushing her in and closing the door once again. Gently, he guided her to sit on his bed. Kiwi hopped out of his drawer excitedly at his friends' return.

"Ulrich- can you please tell me what you're doing?" Aelita was beginning to become agrivated, wanting to go to the factory and be closer to Jeremy's memory.

Still not speaking, he rummaged around through Odd's desk drawers instead. Opening and closing nearly all of them, he almost gave up until the bottom drawer had what he was looking for. Grabbing out the supplies, Aelita was a little put out when Ulrich came back to his bed with make-up tools in his hands.

Reaching for what looked like a concealer- don't ask him how he knew, because he didn't, he just grabbed the one that looked like a skin tone- he opened it up and got a make-up brush.

"Why does Odd-" Aelita began.

"Stay still," he spoke softly. Ulrich grabbed the girl's delicate chin with his fingertips, and tilted her face to look at his. The teen's eyes outlined the nasty bruise that thankfully no one had noticed, or at least pointed out.

Aelita's face blushed without her permission at the close proximity of their faces in broad daylight. She was only beginning to get used to it at night.

Ulrich didn't notice the girl's embarrassment, however, and ever so softly began to dab the brush on the purple mark.

Aelita hissed in pain at the pressure and recoiled back, only to get nowhere because of Ulrich holding her face.

"Shh…" he hushed comfortingly, "It's okay, the pain will go away, trust me."

Even though she believed his words, at the present moment it sucked. Aelita usually didn't have to go through the pain of a XANA attack afterwards, because more often than not they did a return trip and the wound was just a distant memory.

"Ulrich," Aelita whimpered, "Please stop."

"It's okay, you'll get used to the pain, it's okay."

The dark bruise was quickly disappearing from the make-up that was being rubbed onto it by an untrained hand. Aelita grabbed at the wrist of the hand that held her in place, in hopes of both getting him to free her and for comfort.

Finally, he had covered up the mark fairly well, only noticeable if one was looking for it, and they both let out a huge sigh of relief. Aelita because she didn't have to go through with that anymore, and Ulrich because it was really difficult to watch, let alone be the cause of, his friend in pain.

Snapping the concealer closed, he commented, "Now you don't have to explain that it was a XANA attack."

"Hah hah," Aelita deadpanned.

Just as Ulrich was stuffing the make-up back in the drawer and Aelita finished looking at Ulrich's handiwork in the mirror, they both heard shuffling in the hallway. The boy immediately went on high alert, taking a few quick strides and opening the door with a glare.

Sissi and Hervé stood on the other side, the girl half-bent over with two trays of steaming hot food. Both their cheeks were tomato red for some reason, Sissi's eyes were wide like she was having trouble believing something, while Hervé looked as if he would be anywhere except for standing a foot behind the girl in front of Ulrich's dorm room.

"Sissi?" Ulrich said in surprise. "Hervé? What are you doing here?" His face melted from protective anger to shock in seconds.

Straightening up with the food still in her hands, Sissi nervously switched the trays from arm to arm. Hervé backed away a little.

"Um, well I-I c-came to give- I saw you guys not g-go to lunch, that is…" Sissi was obviously flustered, not meeting the eyes of the boy in embarassment. Ulrich's eyebrows shot up, never seeing the confident girl stutter and scramble for words.

Instead, while the principal's daughter tried to choose her words, Ulrich stated, "Are those for us?"

His voice seemed to break her out of her state enough to make a complete sentence, because she blinked, then nodded, finally meeting his eyes. Hervé reached forward and lightly grabbed Sissi's arm, whispering to her, "C'mon."

'Then that must mean she brought us dinner the other day…' Ulrich thought, remembering that there seemed to be a lot of his favorites on one platter, and Aelita's on the other. Only someone that knew them closer would know that Ulrich actually like broccoli, and Aelita favored an extra croissant.

The princess peeked over the taller boy's shoulder, hearing the other girls voice and becoming curious. Sissi out-stretched her arms for Ulrich to take the food, the boy thanking her, making her blush again, when she caught sight of the pinkette.

Sissi gave the girl a nasty look, that looked obviously jealous as well, before not saying another word and walking down the hallway. Hervé hesitated for a second, before mumbling, "A-are you doing better, Aelita?"

The girl in question numbly nodded her head in response. Hervé quickly stated, "Right, well-" and scrambled off after Sissi's apparent bad mood.

Aelita, confused, mumbled, "I wonder what that was about…"

The boy, not having heard her, instead handed what appeared to be Aelita's lunch tray to the girl. Aelita sighed and took it, depressed at not being able to return to the factory after all, sitting on Odd's bed to at least eat a little. Kiwi came up on the bed to lay down next to her.

Ulrich brought his portion to his own bed, a smirk fighting his way onto his face, and as soon as he was properly seated, he said excitedly, "I think I just solved one of our problems."


	6. Recruit

PLEASE READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE IF YOU ARE AN AVID READER OF THIS STORY

wooow sorry I didn't mean to take two weeks this chapters actually been done for about three weeks but this was a real bitch to write because I'm bad at transitions in stories (ex. the beginning, the climax, the finale) I have the middle parts down and can type those in a day. But I'm having trouble with the next chapter and have a grand total of two paragraphs typed up. Again, it's another transition chapter (you'll be able to tell what type of climax it is by the end of this chapter) but if I get rolling and keep up with the momentum, I should be able to type it in a few days. SHOULD BE. It's not my forte, though, so that's not the case.

tldr: I hated typing this chapter and I hate writing the next chapter which I can't seem to start. Which means I'm not positive that I can crank out another chapter by next week. I'm going to make it priority, though, instead of playing skyrim.

Fingers crossed that I will, but just a warning. Reviews inspire and motivate me:)

* * *

"What-What was that?" Hervé squeaked out, later alone in his room that he shared with Nicholas, who was currently out.

The boy frantically thought about what he heard on the other side of that door with Sissi this afternoon. Hervé had been so embarrassed after that moment he totally forgot about Sissi and went straight to his next class to think. The voices, sentences and noises he heard behind that door were etched so hard into his skull that attempting to do a simple math assignment proved to be impossible.

All this time, Hervé believed that Aelita was with Jeremy, and Ulrich with Yumi. So that means they never were together? Or when their significant other wasn't around they could fool around? Even if the others in their group were missing, Hervé never thought that Ulrich and Aelita were like… that… together. Nicholas would be so heartbroken, because here he thought that he would be the one Aelita chose after Jeremy and Odd.

It didn't even cross his mind that chances are; people were… doing that kind of stuff at this place.

Hervé messed up his already wild hair with his fingers, stressing over this social situation. Things were so much easier when he ducked his head and hid behind his glasses. He couldn't believe that he heard that with Sissi. The brain wondered for a moment how the girl was taking Ulrich being in that kind of relationship with Aelita.

Deciding that the homework he was hoping to do wouldn't get done tonight, he switched off the light early and headed for his bed.

BREAK

"I think we should think this over more…" Aelita worried. "Don't you think this is a bad idea? We shouldn't just jump on an easy solution and endanger more lives than were already taken."

"Well when would be a better time?" Ulrich responded, trying to keep his temper under control, "When we're dead and there's no one left to fight XANA?" It wasn't working too well.

Aelita shot him a look from across the room. Currently, they were in their separate beds. Ulrich had already grown accustomed to his new roommate, and after she fell asleep he was even planning on sneaking over to her side of the room once again. 'It was for her' he would try and reason with himself.

Earlier Ulrich had shared his plan that maybe they could recruit new members to the Lyoko Warriors, namely Sissi and Hervé. Aelita had nearly choked on her lunch when he spit that one out. The boy explained how good it would be, but Aelita seemed in a daze the rest of lunch, and most of the day for that matter. Ulrich gave her the time to consider the idea, since it would be a big and potentially dangerous step to fighting XANA. Just tonight, as they were lying in bed, had she begun to share her thoughts.

"Listen," Ulrich started, sitting up to lean on his elbow and look over at the girl. "It's just Sissi and Hervé. No one else needs to know. If they don't agree, we do a return trip, and it can go back to just the two of us. But do you really think we can survive another XANA attack with just us two, and XANA bent on destroying us?"

Aelita chewed her bottom lip, from what Ulrich could make out in the darkness. Having thought about this all day, she could see Ulrich's point very easily. But the more dominant side of her that didn't want any more casualties fought hard.

"We would need time to train Sissi-if she agreed-and just having to do that makes us vulnerable." Aelita reasoned, not wanting to voice her actual worries.

Ulrich saw through her attempt, however, by the way it sounded like she was about to cry. Deciding that he needn't have to wait for her to fall asleep, he got up to climb into Odd's bed with her. Aelita, already expecting this, easily dug her fingers into his shirt and buried her face in his chest when he was comfortable.

Then the boy spoke. "Sissi won't get hurt, it's okay. You won't get hurt either, and I won't, and Hervé won't." He soothed her with his words that they both knew couldn't be guaranteed. "And we still have William's clone with the upgrade-"

"No." Aelita said sternly, but was muffled by his chest.

Ulrich leaned back, looking at her face. Thankfully she hadn't shed any tears, but she still looked upset. Only a little more angry than sad.

"We need to take the upgrade off of him and leave him be," she told the boy, looking him dead in the eye. "You saw last time he had the upgrade how easily more attention was brought to him."

"Well, maybe the upgrade got him more attention, as in; he didn't seem like a total idiot anymore." Ulrich responded back hotly, his fingers unconsciously curling around the girl's waist that he still held.

Aelita scrunched up her nose, poked Ulrich in the chest with her finger and curtly replied, "We're just lucky no one seemed to notice anything different today." Aelita's expression softened. "We need to play things safer, Ulrich."

The gentleness of the girl's voice brought up guilt in himself for being too quick to anger recently, and he brought Aelita to his chest again, burying his nose in the princesses' hair. "I'm sorry, really I am," he mumbled sincerely, "just… think it over. We can take the upgrade off and that's really what you think will make things easier, but you have to admit he really saved us today."

Aelita sighed into his arms. Ulrich was putting a ton of emotional things on her. She knew that he didn't mean to, and Aelita would prefer that he did come to her about these things, but it was enough that her love and two best friends had just recently died. The girl repeated in her head that he was going through the exact same thing as her at the moment, the only thing Ulrich was doing differently was moving on, and trying to plan things for the future.

The more Aelita had considered Sissi and Hervé to become a part of the Lyoko Warriors during the day, the more it seemed like a good idea. That or the only option. She was having trouble differentiating between the two. Would she really allow the two, if they agreed, to sacrifice themselves? And what about William? Even if he wasn't a real being, nothing deserved to be treated like a punching bag for the specters like Ulrich was suggesting. Plus if-or when- the real William came back, it would be bad to leave a lot of trouble for him that the upgraded clone could create.

The pinkette held back tears from the decisions that demanded answers that she wasn't willing to give out. Close in between the two teen's bodies, Aelita clutched the items of her fallen friends, wishing she had Odd's sense of humor, Yumi's strength, and Jeremy's love right now.

In the midst of her silent thoughts, Ulrich had heard Aelita's breathing become even and slow, telling him that she had fallen asleep. The lull of her rhythmic breaths lured him into his own dreams as well.

BREAK

"Just go up there and do it!"

"I don't see why it has to be done like this."

"She likes you more, direct speaking is harder for anyone to avoid, and this was your idea in the first place."

Ulrich sharply looked at the pinkette next to him in the cafeteria. Being it was Sunday, there weren't any classes for the day. That meant the two remaining Lyoko warriors avoided everyone for the morning, until they knew it would be unhealthy to skip another meal in a row and joined the rest of the student body for lunch. Currently, both were sitting side by side, facing Sissi's table with semi-eaten trays forgotten in front of them.

The principal's daughter kept glancing up, and her cheeks stained red in embarrassment. They assumed it was because Aelita and Ulrich continued to stare her down, while making little whispers of conversations between each other on how to invite Sissi in on the group. Hervé was sitting next to the girl as well, but he didn't notice the two watching the table, more absorbed in a chemistry book. It had been decided beforehand that Ulrich would lead Sissi away from the brain, inviting Aelita to swoop in and corner him.

Ulrich crossed his arms moodily. "This seemed like a better idea yesterday," the boy sighed. Ulrich stood, ignoring the gazes of the girls that weren't getting over the other day's newspaper picture, and strode to Sissi's table.

The girl looked up at the approaching footsteps, and wasn't very surprised to find Ulrich stood directly in front of her line of vision at the foot of the cafeteria table. Hervé also glanced up, locked eyes with Ulrich for a split second, and buried his nose back into the book to avoid the more popular male.

"Hey Sissi," Ulrich said as pleasantly as possible. "Would you like to go out to the park for a walk right now? I've wanted to ask you something…" Ulrich didn't mean for it to sound like he was going to confess his love, but he knew there would be no way for her to decline if it was worded like so.

Sissi's eyebrows shot up, and for a moment suspicion crossed her pretty features. It melted quickly until her usual, cocky air returned.

"Of course, Ulrich darling," Sissi said a little louder than necessary, "I would love to go for a walk with you through the park." Ulrich cringed at both the tone of the girl and whispers of people that had heard. When had he cared so much about others opinions?

It didn't matter. Both Lyoko warriors knew that she would be like that, therefore it was a better idea to be away from others when they invited her.

Aelita watched from her seat as Sissi and Ulrich walked out of the cafeteria doors. Her sights zeroed in on Hervé. The part where Ulrich said that Hervé would be a good addition to the team surprised yet pleased her. When the brain had attempted to comfort her during a breakdown, she accidentally begun to trust him, despite previous things he did last year. Her companion was probably thinking that it would be a good idea for someone to work the supercomputer in their place.

After she could no longer see the boy and girl outside of the windows, she made her move. The girl stood up as discretely as possible to not gather attention, and quickly made her way to take the seat directly across from Hervé.

Looking up in annoyance at yet another disturbance, his green eyes widen when he saw the kind girl that was part of the group that he hated and envied at the same time. Hervé's book was forgotten on the table after his hands went limp. He leaned back a little in his chair and mentally prepared himself for whatever the girl could possibly want to say to him.

Aelita analyzed him and gauge what her words should be. She must have sat there staring at him longer than she thought because he voice shook her from her gaze.

"Have you been feeling better since yesterday?" Hervé asked stiffly, but concernedly.

Her face softening from the serious mask, she nodded with a slight smile. "I just… wasn't having a good day. And Ulrich wasn't with me…" she trailed off, feeling bad about not telling the complete truth. Aelita had to remind herself that she could tell him everything if he joined the group. 'At least the atmosphere isn't as stiff now,' she thought.

The pinkette cleared her throat and rubbed her cheek, flinching at the pain of her invisible bruise. How was she supposed to go about this? Aelita didn't think this far ahead, she thought the words would just come to her. Maybe talking to people about joining a team of heroes that has a very high chance of getting you killed was a more difficult thing to talk about than she anticipated. Her anxiety just rose by the second.

"Hervé, Ulrich and I… we-we would, um, do you t-think," Aelita began, becoming more scrambled as the word tumbled out. 'Dammit,' she thought bitterly.

The brain sat patiently, though, even leaning in to hear her words better. The girl's eyes would no longer meet his, and the flinch from moments ago concerning him. Hervé knew that this was a big thing they were discussing.

"Does this have to do with the disappearances?" Hervé interjected between her pause.

Aelita heart hammered harshly at the correct accusation. Her eyes snapped to connect with his, staring into them. The chatter of the cafeteria seemed to mute, the air around them thick with tension.

Hervé knew he was right.

Aelita managed to slowly get out, "Will you and Sissi meet me in the park tonight?"

As he nodded solemnly, not questioning why Sissi was to come, more interested in the answers that may be provided, the noise seemed to return to their senses. Just as loud as before.

The pinkette's expression fell back into her indifferent mask that she arrived with, nodding a farewell to the brain. She noiselessly scraped her chair away from the table, quickly making her way to the doors that would take her back to the boy's dorms, hoping Ulrich would be there soon as well.

BREAK

Sissi had immediately tried to latch onto Ulrich's arm while they were still just outside of the cafeteria doors, hoping that if someone were to glance out, they would see her claim on the boy. He quickly unlatched her hands from his arms with as much patience as possible, remembering her kindness over the previous days that was making this worth it.

Sadness crossed her features at his actions to push her away, but she reluctantly kept her hands to herself afterwards, trailing behind and letting him lead her to the park. If he didn't want it to be a romantic walk across school grounds, why else would he have her out here?

Just as the girl's annoyance was about to get the better of her and she would begin to demand answers, her crush turned sharply to face her. Due to the suddenness of his actions, she subconsciously took a step back and became very aware of their surroundings. They were in the woods connected to the school, at least 100 meters away from another living soul.

"Me and Aelita want you to meet us here tonight," he bit out before he could chicken out.

Sissi's delicate eyebrows rose at the request. A few beats of silence later, Ulrich knew he needed to elaborate more.

"The situation… it's something we think you and Hervé can help with. And we need you."

"You-need me?" she stuttered.

"And Hervé," he quickly continued. "It's… it's about what our groups been up to these years."

The raven haired girl mulled over the information. Wasn't some of their group missing? Was this a part of that? But then she realized that this would be the time to get all the answers she could want. If it was so important, it had to satisfy all her inquiries.

With a sly smile that was borderline flirtatious, she happily nodded to his question.

BREAK

While the rest of the day seemed to stretch on forever for the two anxious black haired teens, the Lyoko warriors wanted much more time to prepare.

Ulrich had decided not to bring up William to Aelita for the day, in hopes she would forget the program was still installed on the clone. He may have also done it to lighten her load as well, after watching the girl gnaw her nails in Odd's bed for hours that day.

Besides, more demanding things needed to be covered by the time dinner had rolled past and it was about time to meet the two hopefully new members of the team.

As Ulrich and Aelita slowly made their way the agreed destination, the boy could feel the shaking of the girl's fingers as she desperately held onto the back of his jacket. Had they been in their room, he would have hugged her tightly and not let go. But since they were outside, even with no spectators, he ignored her and kept them moving forward with his hands in his pockets.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this-"Aelita whispered from behind Ulrich.

The boy cut her off with a sigh. She immediately snapped her mouth closed, knowing that voicing her concern was just making this harder for the both of them. Ulrich stopped walking and looked back at her, sadness coating his complexion instead of anger.

For a moment, forgetting that they were in public, he brought his hand up to gently rustle it in her hair for comfort. Aelita leaned into the soft touch, letting it calm her, before all too quickly it was taken away. Looking up at her companion's face again, she saw something that hasn't been around for nearly a week.

Hope.

He had a small, lopsided grin and his eyes were sparkling and kind. Ulrich knew that this was going to help, and everything would be better.

Aelita managed a small smile back, her heart lightening enough for her hands to stop shaking. "When you're going through hell, keep going."

With a confused tilt of his head, Ulrich answered, "Where did that come from?" To which he only got a shake of the head in response. The boy's hand came up to scratch his hair, but flinched when he came in contact with his wound from yesterday. Aelita reminded herself to check that when they got to the factory.

The two of them walked just a little farther into the trees, coming to where the manhole lay, to find their invited guests. Hervé noticed the two's arrival first, perking his head up from what seemed to be an intense conversation with Sissi. It was hard for any of them to see the other's expressions through the darkening sky, but both Sissi and Hervé seemed to be anticipating what was next.

Sissi turned to look at what caught the brain's interest, just as the Ulrich and Aelita walked up to make a sort of circle.

"What is this about?" the principal's daughter demanded, "Girls shouldn't be out this late." The other three teens saw a pointed look towards Aelita, implying she didn't want the other girl there.

Ignoring Sissi's remark, Ulrich simply said, "Look down."

With confused expressions, the two looked down to the center of their little formation to find a rusty manhole cover that had a very slight stench oozing from the holes at the top.

Hervé nose wrinkled at what he knew the more popular teen was implying. "What's this about?" he repeated his companion's question.

"We can't talk about this here," Ulrich gruffly said, kneeling down to remove the lid to the sewers. The Lyoko warriors had become accustomed to the smell, and in fact if the sewer stopped smelling like it did, they would have a hard time adjusting.

"Do you honestly expect us to go down there?" the raven haired girl nervously mumbled, cautiously looking down the pitch black hole.

"Yes," Aelita responded for Ulrich, who had done most of the interacting thus far. "If you want answers, follow us," she said, climbing into the manhole after her companion.

After a disbelieving shared glance, Hervé climbed after Aelita, and Sissi followed.

To their relief, the bars of the ladder weren't totally disgusting to the touch, and appeared to be used often- therefore to some degree; clean.

At the bottom of the ladder waited Aelita and Ulrich, the first on a scooter and the latter with a skateboard under one foot. In his hands he held one skateboard and another scooter, slightly outstretched.

"Take your pick," Ulrich invited.

Another skateboard was behind a pipe in the wall, with purple flower decals on it. Aelita was on a blue decaled scooter and Ulrich a green rimmed skateboard. The offered scooter was pink and white, and the skateboard in his other hand had a dog on the back.

It was rather easy to tell whose item was whose from the people in their group. Sissi quickly took the skateboard, leaving Hervé no other choice but to opt for the pink scooter.

As we were prepping ourselves to leave the bottom of the ladder, Hervé decided to ask, "What about that last skateboard?" knowing that he could handle a skateboard better than the embarrassment of riding a pink scooter.

"That's not an option," Ulrich harshly bit out. Suddenly he snapped his board forward to begin their trek, leaving the other three in the dust.

"Sorry," Aelita murmured sadly to the two, but mostly the startled Hervé.

The pinkette lead the way through the sewers on their transportation, stifling a smile at their scrunched up noses when she glanced back.

After a short, uneventful, and quiet ride through the tunnels, Sissi spoke up.

"I don't know why I'm doing this. What's the point?" she complained. Aelita barely managed to make out a shaking in her voice, though, indicating her anxiety. "I could just tell my father you guys know something about your friends' disappearances."

If Aelita hadn't known Sissi was the one that brought them food when her and Ulrich were barely eating, she would've sent her back to the dorms and done a return to the past. Instead she grit her teeth and berated Ulrich's decision to add her to make herself feel better about this situation.

Just then, they turned the last corner and found Ulrich standing under a different ladder in the dim lighting. To their relief he seemed to have blown off steam by himself.

Coming to a stop and stuffing their devices behind the pipes, Ulrich nodded at them and lead them up the ladder, sliding the heavy sewer door open for them at the top. Ulrich turned and kneeled at the top, and then he grabbed Aelita's hand to assist her politely, afterwards reluctantly took Sissi's as well when she offered hers. Since he was already on a roll, Ulrich grabbed Hervé forearm and yanked him up, knocking the brain's glasses on the ground accidentally.

"Fresh air! Finally!" Sissi grumbled and dusted off imaginary dirt from her jeans.

Hervé grumbled and picked up his glasses after regaining his balance. Sliding them up his nose, his eyes widened behind the frames at the sight of the old abandoned factory that was a few miles from Kadic.

"Hey!" Hervé cried out in realization. "This is Stone's and Della Robbia's love nest!"

Sissi gave him a look that said, 'you're still on that?' with a hand on her hip. "They're cousins, dork."

Hervé shot the girl a glare, knowing what he saw a year ago.

"Well," Ulrich called, already halfway across the bridge with Aelita, "come one then!" not having heard the brain.

Thankfully, the moon was bright enough so that Hervé didn't trip to catch up. Meanwhile Sissi took her time, analyzing the building, doubt etched into her pretty face.

Ulrich and Aelita entered through the giant, open doors of the factory and got to the edge of the platform as the raven haired teens reached them. Both Lyoko warriors grabbed one of the four available ropes and jumped.

"Wha-!" Sissi spluttered, quickly looking over the edge. The two easily landed on their feet after sliding down the ropes like pros.

Hervé took a nervous step back, whispering, "Not again."

"Grab a rope and come down!" Ulrich commanded.

Sissi tentatively grabbed a rope, pulling a little to check the durability. She held on tight with both hands, gulped when she looked down, and took the leap. Sissi closed her eyes tight, but the ride was over much faster than she anticipated. Ulrich had to physically grab the girl before she hit the cement after realizing the girl had shut her eyes.

Watching Sissi have some trouble making down, Hervé stuttered, "I-is there a-another way-y?"

After adjusting Sissi, both Lyoko warriors exchanged a glance. Aelita smiled slightly, and Ulrich looked up with a large grin as well.

"Nope."

The brain groaned and slid a hand down the side of his face. Very gently, as if it would bite, he grabbed the rope, remembering the last time he was required to go down it with Nicholas. Working up all his courage, he jumped to wrap his legs around the rope, clinging to the scratchy material, and he went… nowhere.

"You can't hang on that tight, Hervé!" Aelita guided. "You need to go down the rope!"

"I'll fall if I don't hang on, though!" he argued.

"That's the point!" Ulrich barked.

Hervé swallowed again and reminded himself not to close his eyes like Sissi did. He hoped what they wanted to talk about was good. In very light amounts, he slackened his legs' hold on the rope, and found himself going down much slower than the other three. And that pleased him.

When he was just a foot from the ground, he released himself from the rope and landed on his feet. Hervé patted his chest and head to make sure everything was already, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly Ulrich clutched his stomach and burst out laughing. Hervé cheeks stained red in embarrassment from the other boy's chuckles. Sissi was covering her smile with her hand, already over her experience.

Aelita glared at Ulrich as they lead the new members to the elevator. As the door slid open, the pinkette commented, "I would stop laughing, Ulrich. Jeremy told me how your first time was."

The teen's laughs stopped, and he sent her a look that said she better make like Jim and not talk about it. Hervé and Sissi's interest peeked though, and Sissi began to giggle for a different reason, obediently getting into the elevator with the brain. "What was Ulrich's first time like?"

Aelita smiled at the innocence and friendliness of Sissi's question, and replied with, "let's just say that Ulrich has a fear of heights."

"Get over it," he grumbled, punching the red button to bring them down.

Instead of continuing to laugh over the light-hearted conversation, Hervé and Sissi staggered at the roughness of the lift that the other two were used to. Exchanging a worried glance, Hervé piped up, "Are you going to tell us why we had to come here? And are you sure this is safe?" He eyed the top of the elevator that appeared to be bent at an odd angle with a hole at the top.

Aelita softly smiled at him. "Yes, it's safe. And… well, we'd rather show you," she answered as the large elevator doors slid open.

Sissi and Hervé's jaws went slack from the sight of the enormous computer interface connected to the wired ceiling at least 25 feet high. A large holomap that the two new members didn't even think was invented yet took up the center of the room, with a strange symbol that looked like a ball with four wings.

Hervé's glasses were slipping down his nose at the shock of seeing such an amazing piece of technological work.

Sissi tilted her head every which way and mumbled, "Whoa…" walking out of the lift first.

Hervé suddenly turned on the Lyoko warriors with an angry expression. "This is what you guys were hiding? A supercomputer?!"

"Not just any supercomputer," Ulrich retaliated. "A quantum supercomputer." Although the teen didn't know what it meant still, it sounded impressive and made the brain's jaw go slack again.

Aelita shot him a look that she knew he had no idea what he was talking about, then walked out of the elevator after Sissi, the boys following.

"What is all of this? Why are you showing it to us?" Sissi snarled, turning on the two Lyoko warriors as Hervé kept whispering to himself, 'so many questions.'

"First things first," the princess remembered, going to the panel on the wall to the first aid kit. She grabbed Ulrich's arm with her available hand and led him to the computer chair to sit, opening the kit on his lap for convenience. Only when they saw Aelita start inspecting Ulrich's head like a nurse while he obediently sat did Sissi and Hervé take their attention away from the impressive room.

"What's wrong with him?" Sissi worried.

"A specter threw him into the wall," Aelita answered, finding slight wetness in the place his head was hit, and a hiss of pain from her companion. Fumbling to grab the disinfectant while holding pressure on his wound, Sissi quickly came up and reached for what she assumed the girl was searching for, handing it to Aelita. Hervé came up to the last available spot crowded around Ulrich.

"What are you talking about with a specter?" Sure he had heard of them, but only in fictional works.

The pinkette dabbed the medicine on with her fingers, ignoring Ulrich's groans and fidgets. Withdrawing her hand, she wiped off the slight blood with a towel from the kit. Sissi and Hervé's faces contorted with shock and paled at the sight. Deciding his knuckles would be healing properly from here on out, she left the scabbed hands alone.

"Well…-" the princess tried. Her mouth opened to continue, but no words seemed to fit that would both answer his question and not make them freak out.

"First things first," Ulrich declared. He snapped the kit closed and gently set it on the keyboard, as to not press any delicate buttons. He grabbed the cloth from Aelita's fingers, and used the not blood stained side to bring it up to her face and softly wipe off the make-up reapplied from this morning. The girl flinched, and her eyes went downcast as the two new members saw her dark purple bruise staining her face.

Grabbing her chin- but not hard enough where she could escape if she wanted to- he tilted her head so the two could take in the full sight with the glow from the computer screen.

"This is proof so that you know that we aren't lying when we tell you our story," he advised.

BREAK

Ulrich had both raven haired teens get comfortable, sitting against the wall while Aelita took the computer chair-facing them of course although she ached to turn around and continuing working- and Ulrich stood standing in front of all of them.

He explained everything. Beginning with Aelita's story, how she was trapped in the supercomputer, Jeremy materializing her, and who she really. Next he described where the princess was trapped, going into detail what Lyoko was but depended on Aelita to jump in with technological details mostly for Hervé's sake. Lastly, he came to the subject of XANA. He tried to explain the evilness of the program, and how it attacks the real world through the towers on Lyoko, and only Aelita can deactivate them to save the world. Aelita interjected details that he would forget as he talked nonstop.

Finally, Ulrich thought he already said everything to the best of his abilities- but not too in detail as to not scare them too harshly. His mouth was dry and his throat hurt, and by now it had to be midnight. Sissi and Hervé had yet to ask any questions or say anything at all of that matter.

At last Sissi uttered, "XANA…?" she chewed her lip, looking down.

Hervé stood quickly, and clenched his fists until the knuckles turned white. "You two expect me to believe all this? Sure you have a supercomputer, but there's no way you can be transferred into it. Materializing a human being? Impossible!" He threw his hands into the air, yelling accusations at the two. "Where's the rest of your group? Huh? Did they betray you? Did you betray them? You had to get rid of them?" he mocked.

"Hervé!" Aelita called, trying to calm him by standing from the chair and reaching her hands out, but suddenly the girl cried, "Ulrich!" when her companion roughly grabbed the collar of Hervé's flannel and raised his fist.

"Take that back!" Ulrich advised loudly, ignoring Aelita's small hands attempting to bring his fist down. Sissi got into it as well, trying to detangle the samurai's fingers from the brain's shirt.

Instead of the usual fear Hervé would display in this type of situation, he instead locked his jaw and narrowed his eyes, staring straight at Ulrich's raging face. "Where. Are. The others." He demanded, the embarrassment of being told to believe such a ridiculous story fueling his adrenaline.

Ulrich's own eyes narrowed. Despite wanting to rearrange this guy's face, he knew that they needed his help. If Ulrich told the truth, that would probably scare them away, but if he didn't give into the demands of this person, it wouldn't get them any farther to adding them to the team.

"Where are they?" Hervé repeated, with less force as Aelita finally got Ulrich's fist down and the hold on his shirt was loosened. Ulrich glanced at the black-haired girl's expression, seeing her look up shyly, wanting an answer as well.

"Where-"the brain began again but was cut off by a sigh from the other boy. Ulrich completely released him; bringing one hand up to run through his hair. He felt Aelita still clutched his other hand, weaving their fingers together for comfort that he found settled him further.

"They're dead." He answered. Both their faces melted in horror. "XANA killed them. That's how dangerous and serious this matter is. XANA takes lives, and only we know and can take action to save people."

Aelita's hands shook, and his thumb absentmindedly rubbed the back of her hand that was locked with his. Ulrich looked down at the laced fingers, letting his hypnotic rubbing ease his anxiety. He no longer wanted to be here, with Hervé and Sissi. He wanted to take back what he said, go with Aelita and defeat XANA by themselves.

Normally, Hervé would be uncomfortable with their close gestures, and Sissi furious, but all this information was staggering.

"D-do we get proof?" Sissi asked tentatively after a long silence. "I-I mean more than," she gestured with her hands the supercomputer.

Aelita sighed, removing her hand from Ulrich's warm one. "You will only be shown more proof and initiated if you join wholeheartedly." The samurai was impressed with how strong her voice sounded.

"You mean in the scanners?" Hervé questioned, anxiety creeping up into his voice.

Both Lyoko warriors nodded solemnly, Aelita looking the brain dead in the eye and Ulrich with Sissi. If the atmosphere was tense a minute ago, they were drowning in it now.

"Well, uh, what happens if we don't agree?" Sissi started, her voice getting more confident as she went. "I think my father would be very interested in this." Aelita's disinterest and Ulrich's smirk knocked her off guard, the confident little smile she had sliding down her face. Seeing that she wasn't about to intimidate them, she quickly made up for it by reverting to her actual fear. "I mean, what if we get hurt like you two or… worse?"

"I forgot to mention," Ulrich replied. "You've both already been here before," the two raven haired teens looked at each other, "but only Hervé can remember."

The popular girl was lost. "What do you mean I've been here before? I would've remembered this!" while Hervé also voiced his concerns of never seeing this.

"Hervé has been to the factory, though. And the reason why you don't remember is because of 'Return to the Past'." Ulrich explained.

"Return to the Past?" Hervé inquired, already having an idea where this was going.

"It means that if you two don't want to join our cause, we will press a button and go back to the past where you won't remember anything." Aelita elaborated.

The brain gave a harsh swallow, but felt as if he knew his answer. Sissi as well looked stricken- as if she was going to faint- and there was hesitance, but her mind seemed made up.

"Since… I don't want my memories taken- if you really can do that- and… and I would do anything for Ulrich," the boy in question wrinkled his nose at her pathetic attempt to flirt at a time like this, "I-I'll help you guys," Sissi confessed, bringing her hands up to nervously run her fingers though her hair nervously.

"S-same," Hervé stuttered. "But if any of this turns out to be false or too much to handle, I'm out."

"It's not that simple, Pichon," Ulrich said sternly. "You can't get out once you agree. If you tell someone, return to the past will work on the person you didn't go through the scanner, but not on you, and that's not an option if we can't trust you not to do that all the time."

Hervé could really see where Ulrich was coming from. It would make things unnecessarily nasty if this artificial intelligence was as bad as they were making it out to be. But his scared nature wanted to get the better of him. Should he show himself that he wouldn't be in the Lyoko warriors shadow anymore? That he would be one of them doing great things? Saving the world? Could he even agree to risk his life to do those things when he had enough trouble as it was to slide down the rope earlier?

The other three waited for Hervé's answer patiently, Ulrich and Aelita knowing that it was a hard decision. Unconsciously, Aelita's fingers sought out her companions again for comfort, interlocking them again.

"I…" he began before clearing his throat and starting again. "I'll join fully."

The pinkette gave out a breath she didn't know she was holding, squeezing Ulrich's hand. The boy look at her and gave out an airy laugh. The strain of not knowing their responses and not be fighting XANA alone anymore was fading, leaving the two elevated.

"There's so many things to do," Ulrich started, "You two need to know how to fight to defend yourselves, and we need to exchange numbers in case of emergencies and-"

"Wait," Sissi interjected. "I have a question." The two Lyoko warriors glanced at Sissi, to see her staring at their conjoined hands. "Have you two been sleeping together?"

Aelita sucked air in between her teeth sharply while Ulrich began having a cough fit, both their cheeks flaming red. The boy withdrew his hand as quick as he could, rubbing the back of his neck with it. Hervé nodded as well, wondering the same thing. Thinking that the raven haired girl had caught onto their sleeping in Odd's bed together somehow, Ulrich was quick to make up for it.

"I-it's for c-comfort. That-that's it. Nothing else." The boy was obviously flustered talking about the subject of his feelings, but he saw it as the only option as to tell the truth, show as little emotion as possible, and not piss off Aelita.

"Ah," Sissi remarked, eyes going downcast at the answer but didn't ask for more details to their relationship, not liking the awkwardness that hung in the air. Although it had been confirmed, Sissi didn't want to think Ulrich wouldn't be 100% hers one day, because the thought was bringing tears to her eyes.

Aelita attempted to change the subject, "how about we send them through the scanner tonight?" Although she couldn't see outside and wasn't close enough to the calculator to tell the time, she knew it must be getting pretty late. "You bring them to Lyoko and I'll work the controls."

"No way," Ulrich immediately shot down.

Aelita's dainty eyebrow rose to challenge him, crossing her arms. "And why not?"

"What if XANA attacks while we're on Lyoko and you're here by yourself?"

"Then I'll bring you back, alright? Ulrich, how else are we supposed to train them otherwise? Someone needs to be on the supercomputer or at least in the real world now that-"she stopped talking suddenly. Ulrich immediately understood, but the two on-lookers took a second before realizing she was thinking of Jeremy.

"Fine," Ulrich bit out moodily. "Any trouble and you send me back." He gave Aelita a hard look before gesturing to Sissi and Hervé to follow him.

"I can't believe I've been here before," Sissi mentioned, following the boys to the elevator again, having trouble believing it all. It felt like an action movie. She looked at Ulrich to smile, but the recent confession left her with a bad taste in her mouth, and instead looked down at her feet.

"By the way," Hervé begun as they saw Aelita hop onto the supercomputer chair and the lift doors slid closed. "I know Sissi has some experience fighting… but I don't have any. Why me?"

"You're second in our class, after Jeremy. We need someone to run the supercomputer while we fight." Hervé's interest level peaked, and a smile spread over his face.

"That means I don't need to go into the scanner?" he hoped.

Ulrich smiled deviously. "Oh no, you don't get out of it that easily. Jeremy's job may have been to run the supercomputer, but he still went to Lyoko when he needed to. Plus, you won't remember anything if we did a return to the past if you don't go to Lyoko."

"Wow," Hervé grumbled. "Give me another reason."

"You won't be able to be possessed by XANA anymore if you go through the scanners," Ulrich added, liking the surprise on the brain's face as the more popular boy gave him another example of why this would do him good.

Hervé gulped when the elevator opened again on another floor, only in this room there were three coffin-like scanners that had cords coming out of them every which way. Sissi even appeared to take a step back.

Ulrich put one hand on each of their backs, pushing them forward.

"Tell me when you're ready," Aelita's voice crackled over a speaker in the ceiling.

First, the samurai guided Sissi into a scanner, telling her to stay put. She nodded fearfully, hands shaking. Hervé looked like a wreck when Ulrich guided him to the second scanner.

"It's… it's not going to h-hurt is it, Stern?"

Ulrich pushed him into the scanner, "No, not at all. In fact, if you stay still, Aelita may manage to get all your limbs there."

"Ha ha," the speaker deadpanned overhead.

Hervé throat went dry as he watched Ulrich get into the last scanner, the doors of his own sliding closed, a fan blowing up from below him.

"Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Sissi. Transfer, Hervé," Aelita's voice said from a speaker in the machine.

Could he back out at this point? Hervé's stomach had butterflies practically spilling out of it. The fan pushed his hair up along with ruffling up his flannel.

"Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Sissi. Scanner, Hervé." The brain's glasses were being pushed up, but it didn't matter because by this point the boy had closed his eyes tightly and hoped he would survive.

"Virtualization." His black hair stood straight up from the huge surge of energy coming up from his feet. Even through his completely closed eyes he could see the blinding white light coming from the machine around him, and he then he felt nothing.

Absolutely nothing.


End file.
